


■ 



■ 






■ I 



■ 



1^ 







Glass BX.2 3.Ii3 

CojftK __ 

srr. 



Cln jttctljotitst J)ulptt 



THE CALL OF TO-DAY 




UJmjtAs iffy^Ucc 



cct^y 



THE 
CALL OF TO-DAY 



Sermons preached in tho First Methodist 

Episcopal (lunch, Monti lair, N. J. 



By 

ABNER H. LUCAS, D. D. 

OF THE NEWARK ( ONFEREh 




CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
N E W YORK: E A T N A N D M A I N S 



.Lnc3 







T 9 


n 


Ck 

1 a 7 


ST 9 3 

ts. 



COPYRIGHT, I905, BY 
JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 



Hit patent 

Biff, IfrllnUr-i/tu^rnt, 3-lrIprr 



CONTENTS 

M KM 

I. Thk Religion for To-day, - g 

II. Strength Renewed To-day, - 39 

III. Work tor To-day, 56 

IV. The Commanded Strength, 74 

V. Jov for the Morning, 

VI. The Mighty Appeal of Useful- 
ness, ------ 106 

VII. Re-enlisted Strength, - - -118 

VIII. The Complete Life, - 131 



I. 

THE RELIGK >N F< >R TODAY. 

"For ///r £T (7tV of God that bringeth salvation hath 
appeared to all men, teaching us that denying 

ungodliness ami worldly lusts, we should live 
soberly, righteously, and godly in tliis present 

world" — Titus n, 11-12, 

No OTHER statement of the New Testament de- 
scribes more clearly than this a well-rounded Chris- 
tian life and its relation to the present age. All the 
powerful manifestations of grace in the past are 
here related to the future fulfillment of God's pur- 
pose, that the present may be the point of illumina- 
tion. A- -Mine powerful searchlight, whose arc of 
light IS focused in a single point where the electric 
current leaps across the chasm dividing two car- 

j, so this present the point of manifesta- 

tion of the light that is to flood the world with its 
divine illumination. The "true Light that lighteneth 
every man that Cometh into the world" has heen re- 
vealed in Jesus Christ "In Him was life, and the 

9 



io Thk Cam o* To-day, 

life was the light of men." Around that Light are 
the lenses and reflectors, which are to Bend it out 
into the darkness of the tempest The light of the 
world is destined to a glorious accomplishment of 
the Divine plan in a redeemed race. The present 
world is the nexus between the past and that future. 

This conception of the age helps to a practical and 
noble purpose. 

u To serve the present age, 
My calling to fulfill, — 
O may it all my powers engage, 
To do my Master's will !" 

It requires the setting of the text for our under- 
standing of it. It is found in the heart of a letter 
of instructions sent to Titus, a young prince of the 
ancient royal family of Crete, who had become a 
Christian, and whom Paul had prepared for the 
ministry. At an early age he was appointed to have 
charge of the Churches in Crete. No ambassador 
was ever more carefully instructed in the details 
of a difficult and delicate mission than Titus. Hear 
this great declaration of the purpose of the Gospel 
of Christ: "The grace of God which blingeth salva- 
tion to all men hath appeared, teaching US that deny- 
ing ungodliness and worldly lu<ts. we should live 
soberly, righteou-ly, and godly in this present 



Tin: R] i i P( • DAY, it 

world; looking for that blessed hope and the glori- 
appearing of the great God and Savior Jesus 
Christ; who gave himself for us that he might re- 
deem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a 
peculiar people, zealous of good works." That is 
the meaning of every footprint of Jesus Christ on 
the paths of men. That is the purpose of that c 

ide the walls of Jerusalem. 

The Gospel is given to make men of this world 
Christlike; they are to have large fruitfulness and 
great achievement in this present age. The New 

tament never separates earth from heaven. It 
brings before us great ideals which are to vivify, to 

enrich, to realize, to exalt, to perfect all earthly 
things to fitness for the eternal heavens. The Gos- 
pel recognizes the dignity and rights of the body, 
the mind, and human society. It gives its sanction 
to their proper development by inspiring and 
strengthening men so that they may inherit the 

earth. The broadest life for rational and useful 
men :ited in JesUS Christ. If ever there was 

an eloquent protest against narrowness of all kinds, 

it is the breadth of Christianity. It is wide enough 

f<>r all worthy muscularities ; but it shuts (Mil Roman 

amphitheaters and modern brutality. Id is wide 

enough for all art; it shuts out obscenity and ghast" 



12 Ths Call \ 

liness. It is wide enough for love, friendship, and 
home; it shuts out the narrowness that would 
grade womanhood. It is wide enouj 
commerce, wealth, and pleasure; but it warns 

dnst covetousness, tyranny, materialism, and pro- 
tests against the narrowness of making money the 
goal of life. In Christ all things present are on 
Life is ours. The golden age is in this present 
world. 

Let us analyze this description, and see I 
perfectly it fits into our lives and this special a. 
To "deny ungodliness and worldly lusts" is the 
Emancipation Proclamation of the soul. It is re- 
nouncing all right of sin to reign in US. It is deny- 
ing self. Jesus made it preparatory to all disci; 
ship. It is fundamental in every great spiritual 
work. The denial of God's rightful authority in 
life, however it may he expressed, is ungodliness. 
Following logically comes the enslaving of life to 
the things of the world. It is the desire of this 
world as an end of life. Its appeal, St. John tells 
us, is by the 'dust of the flesh, and the lust of eyes, 
and the pride of life." Maurio "In tl: 

three divisions I suspect all the mischiefs which 
have befallen the race may be reckoned." Re- 
nouncing sin is antecedent to the development of the 
virtues of the true life. 



Tu i. Religion i i >h T< > d \y. 13 

T< 1 "' •. • n >berly" is to live with resjx d to 01 
to live "righteously" is to have consideration 
of our neighbors; and to live "godly" 1- to relate 
life to the highest and holiest motives. The first 
teaches us duty to self; the second, duty to society; 
and the third, duty to God. These three character- 
ich the circumference of human life. Be- 
yond them is no goal. To stand upon these peak 
experience is to view the range of man's greatest 
attainment. They are the same mountain peaks our 
pointed out in his summary of the law and the 
eL "Thou shall love the Lord thy God with 
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
thy mind, . . . and thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself." What survey of worthy effort can 
exceed these limits? "This present world" refers to 
a period of time rather than a place. It is to-day. 
The life we now live, the world in which we are 
placed, is the opportunity for every man to gain 
iSS or not at all. "Now are we the children 
of God; and it doth not appear what we shall he, 
but we know that when He shall appear, we shall 
be like llim, for we shall see Him as lie is. And 
man that hath this hope in 1 lim puriheth him- 
". even as He is pure." There IS no vivid, full 
realization of the present age except we realize im- 



14 Tin; Call (, i To- 

mortality in the present moment To-da 
day. Emerson said, "Give me insight into I 

and you may have the antique and future world-." 

1. The present age asserts it- demand for 
thoughtfulness. 

This is a wonderful age of intellectual activity. 
There never were SO many minds at work as now. 

Reading, thinking, planning are the common occu- 
pations of our people. The children of this gen- 
eration have advantages in the public schools which 
were only possible for the privileged classes in C 
leges a few years ago. The printed pages which are 
read would carpet every street and highway of our 
land. The public and private libraries, with mil- 
lions of volumes, are within easy reach of all our 
people. The national guard of these United Stal 
is the line of public schools, the seminaries, col- 
leges, and universities. These are the headquarters 
for the real campaign of our people. It is difficult 
for us to realize the devotion of this present age to 
education. Over four hundred thousand trained 
men and women., who have passed examination 
through a wide range of work, are the teaclu 
Not a single sage of Greece could have answered 
the questions that are asked these teachers. Twelve 
times as many teachers in America as there were 



Tn i RELIGK >\ i « IB T< • D \Y, 

ens in Athens when Bhe ruled Greece and dic- 
tated law to the race ' Forty times as many as the 
number of the immortal legion which, under Xeno- 
phon, cut its way through a continent of barbarians! 

More than fifteen times as maii\- teachers in 

America as there were soldiers who followed Ilan- 

nihal down the slopes oi the Alps into the plains of 

Italy I And more than fifty times as many as fol- 

1 Caesar across the Rubicon to the conquest of 

the world ! Fifteen millions of pupils are enrolled in 
our schools. That is more than all the English- 
Speaking people at the beginning of the nineteenth 
century. It is more than four times as many as the 
inhabitants of the original thirteen colonies. 

We are hying to be thoughtful in this age. The 
religion that is to fit the demands of the age must 
he thoughtful. 

It is well that one passion of the age is turned 
to sober, thoughtful consideration. The thinking 
of a people will govern their ambitions and achieve- 
ment-. Thought determines character. "As a man 
thinketh in his heart, so is he." Thinking is funda- 
mental. Actions are only completed thoughts. The 
final judgment of life IS based Upon the purp 
that have been the motives of action. 



Tin: Call o* To-day, 

M Nol IH the clamor of the crowded 3tf 

Nor in the d plaudits ol the throi 

But in ourselves are triumph and 

If character is dependent upon the thoughts of 

men, the important question for eacli one to deter- 
mine must concern thinking as well as doing. The 
responsibility is the greater, because our thinking 

the result of choice. Environment may influence 

thinking, but it does not determine our choice. 
While we live upon a certain avenue we are not 
responsible for the men and women who may 
throng the thoroughfare passing our door, but we 
are responsible for the guests we invite and wel- 
come within our doors. We are the arbiters of our 
thought. The best and highest thoughts are within 
easy reach of this present world. 

Lowell gave a great truth in his lines: v 

"God sends His teachers unto every age, 
To every clime, and every race of men, 
With revelations fitted to their growth 
And shape of mind." 

Is the appeal of religion fitted to the thought and 
reason of men in this age? Is the Christian religion 
adapted to this emphasis of the thoughtful life? 
A different appeal is made in the Bible to a 

primitive race from that made to a more mature 
people. The dramatic form of the earlier chapters 



Tin: Ki:i : r T( i D \y. 17 

oi the Holy Book was addressed to the imagination 
and emotions. The angel with flaming sword 
guarding the gates of Paradise had a message for 
that time. The ark prepared for th< of those 

who would accept shelter from a destroying flood, 
the smoke-wreathed mountain, the lightnings and 

thunders. \\\ ntial in the world's kindergar- 

ten period of education. When God spoke to Elijah, 
a man o\ deep emotion and loft}' imagination, the 
wind and the earthquake were the media of com- 
munication. But the Ethiopian eunuch, a man of 
business calculation, learns of God, through the 
quiet study of the Word, of the prophet Isaiah. God's 
appeal to this age is clearly an appeal to reason. 
When an erring nation is to he won from their dis- 
obedieno speaks through His servant: "Come, 

. and let us reason together, saith the Lord; 
though your sins be as scarlet, the}- shall he as white 
as snow ; though the}- be red like crimson, they shall 
he as wool." The appeal of to-day is not to 
the tremblin] an awful judgment, nor to 

the tenor- of a broken law, hut to a calm consid- 
eration of the proper relations between the Creator 
and His children. Whatever may he the future 

of Cod to men, required by the disrq 
of the appeal to thoughtful consideration, it is evi- 
2 



Tjii; ( T i . 

dent thai the greatest plea that has ever been made 
has been directed to reason. Occasionally bitl 

tnplaint is made that the spectacular and tragic 
arc omitted in these latter days. There is no de- 
privation when God's m< me to men 
asking for careful thought. To be capable of 
thought and conference with the Father of all, is a 
high dignity and privilege. When your son was a 
child incapable of understanding the principles of 
family discipline, you did not ask his opinion as to 
the simple duties of ohediencc, study, play, and 
work. These were required of him without argu- 
ment. Discussion was discouraged; obedience was 
imperative. But as lie grew to maturity he was 
trained to think, to value motives, to reach a ra- 
tional conclusion. The method of family planning 
was changed, and you invited him to counsel with 
you. You "reasoned together." It was the dig- 
nity of the son and the joy of the father that they 
could meet upon the plane of reasoning together. 
It is God's highest appeal to us, when lie invites us 
to sober consideration of His claims and our duties. 
What wonderful invitations God is making in His 
Word! In the light of careful and reverent study 
of the Bible in these days, it may be declared that 
no man has the right to be called a thinker who is 
not familiar with the message and philosophy of 



Tii ! R] I [GI< >N i « >H To DAY, 19 

I L The open Book in this age mean 

than the unfastening 1 >f the C( >vers of the Bible 
for popular study. It is a book of presented I 
and has the invitation that men shall weigh its evi- 
dence and accept its instruction. 

The person of Jesus Christ as revealed in the 

. the fulfillment of prophecy, is an appeal to 

the intelligence of this present world. "God, \\h - 

at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in 
times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in 
these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom 
He hath appointed heir of all things. " And the 
exhortation is given that, in this supreme appeal, 
"we ought to give the more earnest heed to the 
things which we have heard lest at any time we 
let them slip." JeSUS is set before US in the Gospel 

tiger. He is announce* 1 as 

the "beloved Son in whom the Father is well 

ed : hear Him." His words were spoken to the 

highest judgment of men. "Never man spake like 

this man." Hi- works opened regions of truth to 

that had hitherto been closed to the 

human mind. T I is matchless character, which was 
greater than either His words or works, was, and 
is, the supreme appeal to thoughtful men and 
women. 



The Call <>r To-i 

What more convincing revelation could God 
make to us than is found in the moral beauty of 

Christ's character? What more powerful word 

shall He speak to us than the words of wisdom and 
comfort recorded in the Gospels? Why shall we 
wait to respond to the appeal of reason, when this 
high dignity is opened to men? God speaks as 

directly to men in this present age through their 
knowledge of need as ever lie did with Abraham 
or Moses. If all that we know, as well as the just 
conclusions of gratitude, do not bend our knees and 
Open our lips in prayer, what more can Cod do? 

The religion of to-day is busy with the training 
of the mind as well as the heart. The Church of 
to-day glories in the great Christian educational 
privileges opened to her. Iler m to manh 

is a stirring message of truth to he applied to the 
world's great need. She is discovering her la; 
philosophy of history in the missionary efforts that 
inspire her loftiest devotion. For all the problems 
of the present, although they may he the prob- 
lems of the centuries, the religion of this present 
re is training leaders and thinkers who shall open 
the way to invasion of God's host to the "uttermost 
parts of the earth." 

II. The present age has demonstrated its eiv- 
l thusiasm for the doctrine of human brotherhood. 



Tin: Kr.i.i' fo-D W. 

In ancient Rome the pod brought applause from 
all the rov .it- wlu-n he said, "Homo sum; 

humani nihil a me alienum puto," — "I am a man, 
and nothing human is foreign to me." It was the 
triumph of the great doctrine of the brotherh< 
of man. What was a splendid burst of oratory, has 
become rious realization in this present a. 

The dignity and rights of men arc the core of the 

at philanthropic movement of to-day. Inventions 
and mechanical devices have been substituted for 
the muscular power of the former ages. Society 
has grown because men have enjoyed time to grow. 
The productions of machinery have outrun the con- 
sumption. Wealth has accumulated, and industry 
has been organized. Independence has grown less, 
and dependence has increased. Xo single workman 
the finished product. The individual must 
depend Upon the community to complete his work 
and furnish his table. This is the age of all ages 
when "no man liveth unto himself. 91 The inter* 
of the individual are common inter iety 

has pu1 a new emphasis upon "solidarity," "social 

cor ial gOOd.^ Travel, commerce, 

international interests, diplomacy, history, science, 

and the ideals of the day, are enlisted in the servi 
of the new conception of humanity. Dr. Gordon 



22 Tin; Call o* To-day, 

lias said, "Tin- great mood of thia century is the 
mood of humanity/ 1 We arc concerned not only 
about the rights of men, but the duties of men to 
each other. Never before in history has there b 
so imperious a demand that the rights of the com- 
munity and corresponding duties should unite in 
ushering in the new humanity, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness, as in this present day. The many and 
clamorous problems that insist upon immediate set- 
tlement are essentially problems of righteousness. 
The temperance question, the labor problem, the 
social problem, are before us, and will never be set- 
tled until they are solved in righteousness. One of 
our younger statesmen has recently said that the 
politics of to-day, and still more the politics of the 
future, must be the politics of the poor. Alfred 
Russell Wallace, in "The Wonderful Century," is 
positive that 4 'true humanity, the determination 
that the crying social evils of our times shall not 
continue, the certainty that they shall be abolished, 
and unwavering faith in human nature, has never 
been so strong, so vigorous, so rapidly growing as 
to-day. The flowing tide is with US." 

In America as nowhere else has this movement 
of humanity manifested its presence and power. 
Our ideals are the broad liberties of humanity. The 



Tur Rrii w. 

inspiring motives in the establishment of this nation 
motives of humanity. It- territor) has been 

loped to afford a place of refuge and oppor- 
tunity for the oppressed of earth. Its litera ture 
. n to strength and dignity because it has 

id the message <>i humanity. Lowell, Long- 
fellow, Whittier, Stowe, Motley, Emerson, and the 
others, have been prophets of the great truth of 
the brotherhood of man. Nowhere as here have the 
writings of Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, Robert 
Browning, Alfred Tennyson, great apostles of 
humanity, been so eagerl) read. Our heroes have 
been Washington, Lincoln, McKinley, whose great- 

:ontributions to our national life have been the 
offering of service and life for the good of mankind. 
The attention of the world has recently turned to 
these shores because under the benevolent and wise 
guidance of the President of these United States, 
; nations have here found a basis of just 

and lasting peace. The United States ha- f 

to the front rank- of nations because she has sought 

to be the forei .am of humanity. 

This high distinction carries with it many serious 
and difficult ques a alone of international im- 

ance, but related to our own life. ( )ur only liv- 
ing ex-President recalls the "good old days, when 



24 Thj Call <>i : To-day, 

the desires of our people were simple and unper- 
verted, when labor was the common lot, economy 

was honorable, and extravagance was a reproach." 
He laments the change li ;rom the time when 

Scrupulous honesty and fair dealings were indis- 
pensable credentials to hig^ business and social 

Standing. That was the age when critical and 
dutiful participation in public affairs was the bad^e 
of good citizenship. Then duty of civic obligation 
was built strong and deep on foundations of cheer- 
ful and contented homes. He notes the changes 
that have overtaken American life in all its phases. 
The accumulation of sudden and immense fortunes, 
the disappearance of the individual from trade and 
the increasing power of combinations, the public 
and private extravagance, the credulous toleration 
of corruption in public life, are baneful influences 
of to-day. He sees selfishness so powerful as to 
rob the less powerful of their heritage of right. 
Surely no observer of our life would deny his con- 
clusion that we need firm conservatism, great for- 
bearance, and high principle in a time of great social 
need in this land. 

" God, give us men ! A time like this demands 
Clear minds, pure hearts, true faith, and ready hands : 
Men who possess opinions and a will, 
Men whom desire for office does not kill, 



Tl: .V. 

: whom the 5] can not buy, 

Mm who have h<»n«>r, nun who will not lie, 

Tall men, Bun-crowned nun, who ' 
duty and in private think; 

What message has the religion of to-da) for this 
iiKiit of humanity, philanthropy, and right- 
eousness? It has a life. A life is always more pow- 
erful than a theory. It presents in its program for 
.v, men and women who live thoughtfully and 
righteously. Christianity is nothing if it is not 
philanthropic. Its annunciation hymn is the hymn 
of humanity: "Behold I bring you good tidings 
eat joy, which shall he to all people." It has a 
:i of the Christ as lie sat in the synagogue and 
read from the Scriptures, "The Spirit of the Lord 
is upon Me, because I te hath anointed Me to preach 

the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal 
the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the 

and recovering of sight to the blind, b 
at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the ac- 
E the I .< >rd." The cl< >sed ho< >k v 

given the attendant and he said, "This day is this 
Tilled in your ears." That was the 
[Ural of Christian philanthropy. The accepta- 
ble year of the Lord has dawned. The ('.olden Rule 
has been given tO men. The principle L)i right 



26 Tin: Call i 

ness was announced in word and life of Jesus. The 
religion of to-day must be the "actuality of the life 

of Christ" if it will meet the requirements of the 

age. There is no hope for humanity apart from 
Him. I Ie did not announce a social program for the 
world, hut He did establish a kingdom, and inspire 
men with the spirit which will work out the ki; 
dom of righteousness. The religion of to-day has 
a clear and prophetic note: "We, then, that are 
strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, 
and not to please ourselves." It has a consistent and 
tremendous testimony against the ethics of any man 
who asks, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The Gos- 
pel for to-day is alive with the humanity of Christ. 
Its message is for a world, a Gospel of Divine Son- 
ship and human brotherhood. 

The high passion of the religion for to-day is 
demonstrated in its missionary efforts. A new and 
universal concern has taken possession of the Chris- 
tian Church to supply the spiritual wealth which is 
in the possession of the Church to a destitute, 
afflicted, and tormented world. Xo voice of the re- 
ligion of to-day is so clear and ringing as the call 
concerning the needs, the rights, and possibilities 
of mankind heard in Christian missions. The 
humanitv of God is back of the humanity of Christ 



Ti: I DAY. 27 

ind his followers. The missionarj chant 1- the 
anthem of humanity' ry. All injustice to in- 

dividuals and races must disappear b fore the irre- 
r of religion heartily at work in mis- 
sionary enterprises. To-day a whole world is wait- 
ing to be saved. The only world-power that can 
ipt the conquest is the Christian religion. It 

is the Only absolute and truly imperial power ill 
The new kingdom of the Spirit is here. Its 

mission is to install Christ in the world as the 

Supreme Ruler. "The kingdoms of this world 
must become the kingdom of our Lord and I lis 

st !" The doctrine of human brotherhood was 
announced twenty centuries ago. But if it is to be 
truly the property of the world, it must be proved 
by d< well as words. It demands that those 

who hear the name of the Christ shall stand aloof 
:s and practices which grind the 

- of the poor. They must resist all the causes 
of poverty, sin, and miser}-. And this is the relij 

which is to be proclaimed and lived 

in tl • er that will en- 

men to live righteously is the power of the 
Christ added to the individual. The old problems of 
humanity under the new conditions of to-day n< 

the old apostolic power and a man of to-day. The 



Tin; Cam, "i" To-: 

new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness will be 
discovered by men and women who live the life of 
Christ in the present age. The possibility of loving 

our neighbor as ourselves is only when Christ is 
the power of the life. The new Christianity is the 

old Gospel put into new conditions. Lord Shaftes- 
bury talked with Frances Power Cobbe, who told 

him of the wrongs of the working- girls. The tears 
came in his eyes, and with trembling voice he said, 
"When I think that I am growing old, and that I 
have not long to live, I hope it is not wrong, but I 
can not bear to die and leave the world with so much 
wretchedness in it." Alexander Balfour became a 
member of the Liverpool Town Council. He went 
there as a Christian man to represent Jesus Christ. 
In his diary he wrote: "Prayer for state of mind 
that God can use me to speak in council on the 2d of 
June. Prayer for wisdom and strength to testify 
in the council to-morrow against electing publicans 
to be aldermen." 

" Hands that touch the world's great need 
To Christ must cling; 
Zeal that the cause of truth would speed 
Must spread the win 

In heaven's own light God's work demands 

Such consecrated hearts and ha: 

III. Doubtless many would say that this pres- 
ent age is skeptical and godless. That is not its 



Ti 

characteristic. It has it- doubt, bul it has 
•ah. [ts faith needs the quick 
the realized presenc d. It i . hich 

gn, Th< <1. oibtful as t« > the evid< 

that God is in and over all. The present v. 

to discover God at work in the life of to-day. 
It the miracle could be wrought now as in the 
of Christ's incarnation, the age believes it would 
have great faith. And yet miracles have become 
isual that men do not recognize them. Super- 
natural changes are taking place in human expe- 
riences. To the eye of faith a vision of world 
transformation is opened. The mightiest factor of 
the world of to-day is the Divine power at work. 
has keen defined by Fairhairn as the "regU- 
i of life through the idea of God; it is the ap- 
plication to all things and all events, of the great, 
spiritual, moral, ethical, rational elements contained 
in that idea of God." The sign the world is looking 

s a Christlike character. No power to subdue 
the world of to-day compares with the p 
goodness. A holy a flower for which this 

world can not account. There must he another 

Id to explain it. When all the arguments have 

1, this world will yield to the influence (^i a 

saintly life. "One of the great marks of the youth 



30 Tin-; Cam. <>i To-DAY. 

to-day — I am speaking of thinking youth — is a 
longing for the Divine, Lavisse. What 

Dr. Van Dyke calls "the human life of God" is the 

n for to-day. This is not an ea ure and 

sin-free. It is seeking in many ways to know God, 
Its search may be misdirected, but the search is 
made. Restless until it finds rest in God, it has given 
itself to eager pursuit of pleasure, wealth, ambition, 
knowledge, and power. But the quest of the age is 
for God. The sober thought of to-day cries out, "O 
that we might know where to find Him !" Thought 
without God will easily become skeptical. The phi- 
lanthropy of to-day needs God, or it will easily be- 
come a shallow sentiment, and lose its inspiration. 
And religion needs the sober thought lest it become 
fanatical ; it needs philanthropy lest it become self- 
ish. The mutual relation of the great longings of 
the present day has a most wholesome influence 
upon each and all. One of our recent writers has 
described the age as ''burdened with a weight of 
responsibilities to which it has never lived up ; dis- 
enchanted by the sad advance of a knowledge with 
which our vital wisdom has not kept pace ; stained 
and dishonored by sins of selfishness, and pride, 
and impurity, and unbrotherliness, and greed, and 
avarice, and anger, which our very privileges charge 



Tin. REUGK M I I IB To DAY. 3] 

with a tenfold guilt; delicate and mplacent 

nders, who know how hut do not practice; heirs 
w ho have bartered our birthright, and 
declined our duty, and sinned against the light a 
thousand times, how stand we in the sight of God 
in these latter days, without a Savior from 
sins?" It must know God in I lis pardoning love 
and saving grace. "God was in Christ reconciling 
the world unto Himself." "The grace of God hath 
appeared, teaching us that we should live godly in 
this present world." 

The dignity and crown of all life is in this recog- 
d as the One "in whom we live and 
and have our being." Bismarck, the great 
Chancellor of Germany, stood up manfully to de- 
clare that if he were not a Christian, he would not 
remain at his post a single hour. "If I did not he- 
[, I would do nothing for human mas- 
Take away my faith and you take awav my 
of country." In his greatest speech t> 
the Reichstag he thundered, "We Germans fear 
God and nothing else." That was the secret of his 

er and the genius ^i his great career. "Godli- 

rofitable for all things, having the promise 

of the life which now is, and of that which is to 

■.-." The sign that this present age Seeks is the 



32 Tin-; Cam, 0* To-DAY. 

presence of the God of all grace and love in the 

lues of His professed children, [f I ri>tian 

were filled with the joy unspeakable, betraying the 
secret of the Lord in them, the present age would 
find the religion it is seeking. When Japan, a 
young and progressive nation, goes to every civil- 
ized nation to learn the art of peace and the secret 
of civilization, it is the great opportunity to pro- 
claim the religion that has made us what we are. 
To German}- Japan sent students for military train- 
ing ; to England and America came her students 
for commercial and business training; to every great 
university she sent her youth for educational 
preparation for a great destiny. Why did she turn 
away from professed Christian nations when she 
sought training in religion? We had not fully 
yielded ourselves to what we have professed! Our 
inconsistencies prevented our revealing the power 
and glory of the God of our fathers. The Japanese 
turned away from those who had the form of godli- 
ness but denied the power. 

The general impression prevails that the pres- 
ent is not a favorable time for the life we have 
Ik en studying. Proofs are easily found that would 
indicate that this age is not seeking a sober, right- 
eous, and godly type of living. The daily press 



Tin. Km.: \y. 

indicates that this is an intensely worldly age. The 

itions of municipal, State, and national 

!i.)\\ how corrupt officials in high positions 

may become. Men who have sacred trusts display 

*in alarming indifference to their duty in prote 

the important interests committed to them. ( ttd- 

fashioned honesty may seem to be a lost principle 
in the present Trade has become so exacting that 
the high ideals of a noble Christian life are said to 
be inconsistent with the business methods of to-day. 

The home has become a .shelter whan business and 

ty release their victims for a few short hours. 
Plain living and high thinking are out of the fash- 
ion. Society is pleasure-mad, and most men are 
money-mad. Therefore, it is said that the present 

is n<>t a good time for such ideals of living. 
We may easily overestimate the flaunting, corrupt, 
and worldly influences. The evil of the world is not 

almighty. Righteousness has not vacated this 

world. There are thousands of the prophets of the 
living God in this land and age. God is on the 
throne of the present world. 

But, with all the opposition found in the spirit 

of this age, what shall the Christian man do? He 
may yield to it, and accept its inconsistencies. He 

may drift with the tide, lie may surrender char- 
3 



34 C.M.I. I 'AY. 

acter to social and business customs. That is moral 
cowardice and religious treason. For such worldli- 
ness the age will have respect There is no place in 
the Hall of Fame for the traitor. To escape oppo- 
sition by yielding to it, is the folly of the unthink- 
ing. 

Or lie may attempt to run away from the age. 
Reasoning that sin and wrong are overpowering, 
many have concluded that the wise course is to 
escape from their influence. Thousands of choice 
souls have followed that path. Mountains, caves, 
convents, and retreats have been filled with those 
who have attempted to hide from the sin of the 
world. But victory does not consist of flight. To 
be afraid of one's age and run away from it, is 
faithless. The victory that overcometh this world 
is of faith. God is not hopeless about this world. 
He is mightier than wrong. He has redeemed it to 
Himself, not to be wrested from His loving author- 
ity. This world will yet be the place of His glorious 
triumph. 

To try to save our lives by flight is to lose the 
Opportunity to help save it. The joy of living is 
in winning the victory for righteousness. To miss 
the chance of working with God in saving a world 
is to miss life. The shriveled souls that live for 
themselves have already lost life. 



Tm i: Reugk >n i i >H T( > D w. ;^s 

But it' ur;i s,.n is ii"i to be accepted and c< ward 
be refused, what shall a Christian do in 
tins present world? The Master's prayer for His 
followers never contemplated either hiding or sur- 
render. "I pray not that Thou shouldest take them 
out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them 

i the evil." 

This present world is the divinely appointed 

place for glorifying God and establishing His king- 
dom in righteousness and power. Our victory must 
be won by faith. No other world of conquest is 
promised God's child. Xo other such school of 
courageous resistance will be open to you and me. 
No better results can be obtained than in this pres- 
ent world. The time is given us to wrest triumph 
out of what we thought was defeat. Never was 
there a time when moral heroes have a better op- 
unity than now. The world waits for men and 

en who are brave enough to claim the victory. 
What a fine thin-' it was when Grant, the great 

nander at Shiloh, rode to an important posi- 
tion held by a large number of troops under the 

t one <>f the most trusted generals. 
Grant inquired, "What have you been doing?" 

1 .eiieral." was the reply. "What shall 
we do now?" "Keep OH fighting/ 4 Was the brief 



36 Tin; Cam, (»]■* To-1 

reply from the silent man. The great Captain of 
our Salvation finds us in the midst of the contest, 
but His word is "Keep on fighting." 

There is a pile of clay. It has been carried to 
the pottery for the purpose of making china. It 

is coarse and unsightly. It soils all who play in it. 
Anxious mothers urge their children not to touch 
it. But the potter takes it, treats it, fashions it into 
forms of beauty and service. It comes forth from 
the kiln refined china. Thus treated, it has an en- 
hanced value in the market. As clay it was pur- 
chased by the ton ; as china it is sold by the piece. 
If the potter should dabble in the clay, it would soil 
hands and garments. But if he uses the clay with 
intelligence, he procures porcelain. This present 
world is crude, coarse, and corrupting, if considered 
a place of amusement. But the Master-spirit see- 
in it not coarse clay, but the porcelain. It might be 
easy to have nothing to do with it ; it might be easier 
to play with the rough materials, but it is our privi- 
lege to use the world as the master-potter. This 
present world and God's children may produce the 
kingdom of our Lord. The conquering life may be 
lived where you live. 

The saint of to-day will not run away from the 
opportunity to conquer the present world. He will 



Tin. Rj i.i > i. \v. 37 

ify his Lord by living soberly, righteously, and 
IK' will cheer his courage with the confi- 
dence that his Savi.-r Jesus Christ will gloriously 
triumph over all enemies. Social, business, b 
and individual life are not hopelessly arid de 
Instead of trying to gel oul of his circumstan 
or to go around the difficulties, the modern saint 
will go deeply into them, and courageously conquer 
them. lie will not timidly inquire for personal 

safety, hut will secure safety for himself by giving 

safety to others. He will not avoid Mulberry Bend 

because it is the rendezvous of cut-throats, thi< 
and plagues, hut will transform it into a beautiful 
park, where life may grow and blossom. 

J low much this present age needs the help which 
a sober, righteous, and godly life could bring! It 
is like the vast and waterless plains of the West 
waiting in desolation through the ages for streams 

of water to Bow upon their parched surface. When 
the mountain torrents are brought to the treeless 
plains, the desert responds with teeming harvests 

and Speedy enrichment to reward the enterprise. 

The dry lands longed for the lifegiving waters. The 

nt world will be the garden of the Lord when 
the refreshing Streams, running bank-full through 
the channels of thoughtful, righteous, and godly 



38 Tin: Call o* To-day, 

lives, shall carry the fertilizing power of heaven to 
this present world. The hills and valleys shall shout 
their redemption because of the pure and abundant 
streams. Then shall be brought to pass the- promi 
"The Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort 
her waste places; and He will make her wikk-ri. 
like Eden, and her deserts like the garden of the 
Lord; joy and gladness shall he found therein, 
thanksgiving- and the voice of melody. " 



II. 

STRENGTH RENEWED T( >-DAY. 

"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their 
strength; they shall mount u f with w\ 
eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and 

they shall walk, and not faint." — Is.\. \i., 31, 

mi: promises of the Book arc so preci< 
beautiful, and triumphant that they lure us to 
grasp the blessings eagerly. We have all been at- 
tracted by the note of triumph in this word. Tt is 
frequently repeated by the children of God, but the 
sured arc not usual in the experiences 
of Christians. Though the promise attracts us, we 
arc obliged to confess that our strength Fails us; 
the fact IS, that if we run, we arc weary; when we 
walk, we do faint. Our faith <\<>v^ not often take 

the upward flight of the eagle. We are troubled 
because the contrast between promise and expe- 
nd, at. 

And yd the promise ; imple. It is the as- 

surance of strength commensurate with the duty 

39 



40 Tin; Call "i To-i 

renewed daily to those who rely upon the Lord. 
One condition puts these resultant blessings within 

ly reach of every SOUL A child can unlatch the 

door leading into a beautiful garden. The least of 

God's children ought to be able to Swing open the 
door of this precious experience. One condition 
will be followed by four of God's "shalls." It is 
clear that if the resultant blessings are absent, we 
have not met the single condition. It is possible 
that the rhythm of the promise carried us easily 
past the condition, and we have not studied what is 
meant by "waiting upon the Lord." If everything 
hinges upon that condition, we ought carefully to 
inquire concerning it. 

"Waiting upon the Lord," certainly can not 
mean that men are to be careless and indifferent, 
aimless and worthless. Folded hands are not the 
symbols of the waiting servants of the Lord here 
described. Xor shall the dreams of the visionary 
satisfy this condition. The vague and impotent 
pictures that never reach the canvas, and never chal- 
lenge the artist's skill to reproduce, are not the oc- 
cupations of those who "wait upon the Lord." To 
pray is not to fulfill this condition. Wonderful as 
the prayer-life ought to be to every Christian, it is 
not what is here intended by waiting upon God. 



i : R n r.\\ i.D To-: 4 i 

Prayer has its unique place in e^ and 

helpful life. It is the most direct of all the helps to 
the divine life, because it is the freest action of the 
divine life in the highest realm, and it prepares the 
way for God to do his own pleasure in the soul of 
him who prays. Prayer is the soul's addres 
God, ami includes petition, adoration, gratitude, 
penitence, and aspiration. But all this may not he 
"waiting," so that this promise can he Fulfilled in us. 
Several Hebrew words translated "wait" in our 
English version may help us discover the meaning. 
In the Psalms we read, "Truly my soul waiteth 
upon God;" in the margin the suggestion is made 
of silence. "Truly my soul is silent unto God." 
This singular expression indicates the utter hush 
of the soul that casts itself upon God. It is in con- 
tract with the clamor of the unreasoning, the shouts 
of the impotent and the imperious demands of those 
of little influence. Waiting in silence until the 
Divine voice shall he heard, and III- message re- 
ceived. In the telephone booth the outer door must 
shut out the clamor of the .street, that the me- 

may he distinctly heard. Waiting upon God is to 

hear what He will say, to learn I lis will concerning 

Not, then, in the boisterous demand of the 

need}', hut the confidence thai dares be silent before 



42 Tin-; (\\i.i. i >.\v. 

d, we are to wait upon Hint Take another 
reference. In that meditation on the p and 

providence of God, the one hundred and fourth 
Psalm, the soul is commanded to "bless the Lord" 
because He is great. His manifold works wrought 
in wisdom, and filled the earth with riches. The 
provisions that God lias made in the sea for in- 
numerable creatures, small and great, is urged U] 
the praising soul. "These wait all upon Thee; that 
Thou mayest give them their meat in due season." 
Here is implied the dependence of God's creatures 
who expect abundant supplies. "Thou openest Thine 
hand, they are filled with good." To wait silently, 
expectantly, and earnestly, is possible only for those 
whose faith assures them that when God shall break 
the silence, the message will be an eternal Gospel ; 
when He shall bestow, the gift will be worthy of the 
Infinite Giver ; when He shall command, we shall 
hear to obey instantly, as the servant who -lands 
without, alert and eager to hear what the king may 
say, in order that it may be done. There may not 
be a special duty to perform in that moment save 
to wait, listen, and be read}'. Here, then, is the 
suggestion that to "wait upon the Lord" is to be 
silent before Him that He may speak, to expect that 
all our needs He will supply, and to be girded with 



S i RBNGTB R i \ i w in T( I 43 

instant, unquestioning obedience to His will. That 
1^ not to sleep, nol to be indifferent, not to dream. 
It is to be awake, confident, separated, prepared for 
service to a Master who directs, provides, and ac- 
cepts responsibility as to the su ause. 

A wonderful illustration of this spirit may be 

found in the story of the "three great chiefs 
the mighty men who followed David. Many brave 
soldiers followed the king through call his career. 
When he fled from his capital and sought safety 

from his enemies, thirty captains and chief war- 
3 were with him, but only three were "mighty 
men." They were promoted to their exalted rank 
because of special service and devotion. One day 
in the harvest time the Philistines, as was their cus- 
tom, planned to sweep down the ripened grain and 
Carry it to their storehouses. David and his chiefs 
came down to the cave of Adnllam, overlooking the 
valley of Rephaim and Bethlehem in the distance. 
mii the brow of the hill and saw his old 
home, at Bethlehem, held by the Philistines. He 
longed for the days of his boyhood, and remem- 

ld well where he often had slaked his 
thirst when a shepherd hoy. lie longed for a drink 
of the water of that well, and as if it were a wish 
impossible of realization, he said. "Oh that one 



44 Ths Call o* To-day. 

would give me drink of the water of the well of 
Bethlehem, which is by the gate!" The three 

mighty men were those who were near enough to 

hear the wish expressed, and who instantly ran 
down the mountain side, broke through the Philis- 
tine guard, drew water from the well, fought their 
way back again to David's side, and gave him his 
desire. It was not a command. David had simply 
expressed a wish; but the three mighty men were 
near enough to hear, eager enough to undertake, 
unquestioning as to the danger incurred, and brave 
enough to jeopardize their lives as they accepted 
David's wish as a command. For such a spirit pro- 
motion to the chief places was worthy. If we were 
soldiers of a great king, as Abishai, and his com- 
rades ! Others did many brave deeds ; but these 
three waited upon David and won their distinction. 
Upon this attitude toward God great blessings 
are conditioned. "They that wait upon the Lord 
shall renew their strength." The word "renew" 
conveys the idea of change. As one lays aside one 
garment and puts on another, so may one kind of 
power for living be exchanged for another. Youth, 
with its bounding strength, may faint and become 
weary in natural exercise. The unexhausted sup- 
plies of power may fail. The ordinary helps lose 



.<:\vi:i> To-day, .; = 

their power to sustain. "The young nun shall 
uttcrl} fall." But a changed power is given those 
wli<> have the attitude of waiting upon the Lord. 
When the usual powers fail, He will "give power 
to the faint." To change from our poor, fancied 
strength to His strength is like the change from 
horse-power, which may drag the heavy car a 
blocks along the street, to the electric power wait- 
head for some uplifted arm to appropriate 
its might, and speed the car toward its destination. 
We may not tell how it occurs, that while we wait 

upon the Lord we are rid of self-strength, and 

clothed with Divine strength; but the Word is ful- 
filled, and we may know that it is done. 

The best proof of its accomplishment may be 
found in the flight of the spiritual life. This 

changed strength demonstrates itself. It mounts up 
as with eagles' wings. It can not be feeble. As 
the growing strength of the young horse pr 

in the speed with which he runs and the load 
able to draw, SO do men who have the renewed 

strength here promised, prove its gift by the using. 
"They shall mount up with wings as eagles/ 1 
Strange simile for the Christian life! Ought they 
not to be compared with doves? The eagle is the 
only bird whose flight IS high enough to measure 



\6 Tin. Caul o* To-day, 

the uplift that may be given God's children. It has 
to do with lofty mountains and deep canons. It 
"climbs the spiral" of the clouds, and flies in the 

face of the sun himself. God's children arc invited 

by promises, and strengthened in experience for 

-real heights. They must be able to climh upward 

to commune with God. Out there, under the 
shadow of Pike's Peak, I watched a majestic eagle 
one summer day. From the lofty eyrie overhang- 
ing a deep gorge he surveyed the broad plains and 
the cloud-piercing mountains. Then, with the ease 
of his giant wing, he floated off in the thin air, and 
rose until as a speck in the sky he disappeared from 
sight. There was no flutter of wing as if conscious 
that he was unequal to the task. With full repose 
of strength, he committed himself to the sustaining 
power he could command from the air. There was 
not an indication of doubt as to that upward climb 
he began. Assured before he flew, he hesitated 
not to match his strength to the upper air, and 
started toward the sun as if to make a morning call 
upon a near neighbor. That was the ecstasy of 
power. That day it seemed clear that no other 
figure could so perfectly illustrate this strength 
promised the waiting soul. 

To be in the heights with God is the measure 



S fRENGTB Kin VA KD T< H 

of the soul's possible flight The best experienc 
men have come when thej have climbed loftily 
toward heaven, and have learned in their isolating 
experiences how great is His help for service to 
those who wait upon Him. When Lot in Sodom 
is to be saved, Abraham must be upon the highland 
to plead. When Moses is to have the law that should 

remain as the supreme legislation for humanity, he 

is called away from the hosts on the plains. Let 

the camp, intent upon amusement and idol-making, 
he left below, hut Moses must climb upward and 
talk with God as face to face. To be used greatly, 
God isolates I lis servants. Paul in Arabia has 
unfolded to his wondering mind all the meaning "i* 
the vision on the Damascus road. Before he can 
mplish his best work as an apostle, he must be 
the solitary scholar in the Lord's school in Arabia. 
Separation, to God, does not require the isolation 
of the convent or monastery. It is the separation 
:perience, not of physical condition, that en- 
ables us to be alone with God. Gordon, the great 
Christian general, found it impossible to wait upon 
the Lord in China, surrounded by curious Chinese 
soldiers. They looked over his shoulders while he 
read his Bible, until he was compelled to rise in 
the [light to secure quiet and opportunity to be 



4$ Thk Caw, ot To-day. 

alone with God. The sleeping camp around him, he 
was able to fm<l Divine help for the work of the 
coming day. See Washington at Valley Forge 

cast himself upon the ground in the agony of in- 
tercession for the feeble cause which he had es- 
poused. Lincoln, before the battle of Gettysburg, 
in the heart of the nation's capital, wrestles with 
God until the assurance of victory is given him. 
Ye Americans, forget not that the place where the 
greatest victories have first been won is where some 
trusting soul has been alone with God, even until 
the day dawn which brings the victory for the 
right. 

Personality is greater than words or works. 
Personality finds its scepter of power in the alti- 
tudes. The question is not how widely men have 
traveled, but how T high toward God's purpose have 
they explored? It is a greater thing for the soul to 
be above the work and business that vexes and 
worries than to be ground under its crushing 
weight. The place for God's children is found in 
the upward flight. "If ye then be risen with 
Christ, seek those things which are above, where 
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." 

There was a strong mountaineer, who one day 
came down from his lonely home upon table-lands 



surrounded by the lofty mountains, to the village 

in the foothills. Tin- town seemed deserted until 
be came in front i^\ the store. There peo] 

rig at the window of the store as though 
curious thing was there exhibited. The tall ^i :int 
from the mountains pushed near to see what at- 
tracted the people to that place. There, chained to 
a perch in the window, In- saw a noble eagle in 

Captivity. As he stood with the cnrioiis crowd, 
there arose in him a Strange purpose; and push- 
ing the crowd aside, he went within the store to 
purchase the noble bird. The transaction com- 
pleted, the purchaser carried the eagle to the tall- 
est post he could find, and set him free. When the 
dew away and the mountaineer turned to 
the crowd, he was called foolish to waste his 

money to buy an eagle to be released at once. He 
replied: "I could not hear to have that bird chained 
to a miserable stake, and gazed at by a curious 

d. I have often watched him and his mate as 

they soared among the peaks, up there. I knew 

he belonged to the mountains, and it would have 

broken my ln-art to see him die in that shop." There 

another who came down from the heigh! 
heaven to find man in the fetters of his sin. lie 

paid the price, and on the cross outside the city's 

4 



50 Tm; Call o* To-day. 

wall lie made it possible that the lives that be- 
long in the eternal heavens should rise to their 
place. 

"The}' shall run, and not he weary ; they .shall 
walk, and not faint." If ever there was an anti- 
climax, this promise seems to be that one. When 
one has the strength for the eagle's climb, what 
need is there for running along the dusty road? 
Why should special reference be made to walking 
over difficult places? If we may rise above the 
world, why should we be trained to walk with it? 
Thus the rhetorician might easily criticise the prom- 
ise. But the spiritual will discover at once that in 
experience the promise rises to its highest point 
when the strengthened are assured that the eagle 
flight may be less important than the slower locomo- 
tion of the traveler. To run and walk are possible 
after the upward flight. Indeed, it is the Divine 
principle that God's children go up to commune 
with Him, in order that they may come clown and 
serve in the valley below. The command of the 
transfigured Master was to descend from the 
Mount of Glory to find in the valley the distracted 
father and his tortured child waiting for the min- 
istry of healing and comfort. Booths on the moun- 
tain of privilege are not needed when suffering 



Strength Renewed To-i 51 

humanit) waits below for help. In all the 
those who have been called into closest communion 
with God have been mosl useful in helping the 
need}- and suffering. Holy men and women bear 
the balm of healing to the suffering and di 
The kind of spiritual privilege thai enables us self- 
ishly to enjoy the prosped from the mountain-top 
experience may be questioned whether it be of 

or man. The chief justification for withdrawal 
from the world for the upward flight is to be pre- 
pared for the best service to those who wait our 
return and help. Mr. Drummond told that a Scot- 
ti>h gentleman had been presented with an eagle, 
but it drooped with sickness and films covered its 
One day he concluded that the captive ought 

not to die there, and that he would give it freedom. 

lie took it out upon the high rock, and withdrew 
that he might watch what would happen. In a 

short time he saw it lift its head, open its eyes, and 

look. The eagle's eye saw something in the sky 

which the man c<>uld nbl see. But as he watched, 

1 appeared in the sky. It came nearer 

and grew larger. Finally he saw that it was an 

eeping down from the upper heights. With 

ream of exultation it swept down and over the 

sick mate. Then, flying beneath it, lifted on its 



52 Tin; Call o* To-day. 

strong wings the weak, half-dead thing, until, gath- 
ering strength from contact with the messenger from 
on high, the sick eagle spread its wings and soared 
away into the clouds. Because the mate had been 
in the upper air it could see the distressed one and 
bring down life and invigoration because it came 
from the heights. There are times when the 
urgency of "the King's business requires haste/ 1 

''Run and not be weary." The importance of 
the mission may overcome the weariness of the 
flesh. We give little heed to the rough way or the 
darkness of the night when we hurry for the phy- 
sician to minister to the dying child. We are 
carried above the difficulties by the love we 
have for the little sufferer. When the serv- 
ice God assigns us requires that we run, 
He gives strength for the journey. How much 
men can accomplish in this power ! Every day 
may be crowded with duty, and yet more can be 
done. Our Christian work is done by the busy peo- 
ple. The idle are not the volunteers for service. 
The cause of Christ in the world is being carried 
forward by those who must run to carry the mes- 
sage. They are enabled to do it, by the changed 
strength. But walking is the pace of the ordinary 
life. Every day we walk; we seldom run. Walk- 



: D T<- 

ing has less exhilaration than running, Wc must 

tlowly. The destination is postponed by the 

delibei tep. Walking is adapted to the long 

journey. When no urgency hastens our steps, we 

walk. 

What is the walk of a Christian? It is his daily 
life. Whatever is of routine duty is walking. The 
every-day life is our walk. At home, in prepara- 
tion for the day, at the office, at school, at Church, 
at the missionary meeting, in the prayer service, 
with the class in the Bible-school before us, the 
h»>urs that are spent accomplishing the unobserved 

task, hours filled with annoyances and petty vexa- 
tions, — all these make up the walk of life. To live 
through them without growing faint is the gre 

>ry of life. And that is the promise, "They 
shall walk and not faint." Along the dusty way, 

-•re, disappointed, often distressed as pilgrims 
destined to a far-off land, we may walk and not 
grow faint. The grace to live the ordinary daily 

full of the monotony of necessary care, is 
ditioned on our waiting upon the Lord 

w let us see the picture. Bach part is essential 
to the other; the}- are not to be separated. There is 
the young man waiting, as a cavalry man resting 
upon his horse waiting for the word of command. 



54 Tnt Cau, o* T<>-i>ay. 

Every attitude indicates his expectation that he 
to be sent on an important mission. While he waits, 
he meditates upon his life and work. lit* discovers 
that beyond all promise of distinction is loyalty to 
the cause he loves. He changes the spirit of his 
life. 1 te is not only a soldier, but a patriot. When 
the word is given him, he dashes out to accomplish 
it with the eagerness and devotion of one who 
fights for his own fireside. In the midst of danger 
he overcomes an unequal foe, he inspires all who 
watch him with wonder that he can do so much and 
so well. He seems not to know weariness. With 
marvelous freshness and force he accomplishes his 
mission. It is true he is sustained by the enthu- 
siasm of his great task, but what shall sustain him 
in the strain of the small frets, wearying things, and 
stupid tasks? He does not faint. He does not 
grow petulant and irritable. He has cheer and joy 
enough for himself and all his friends. He began 
by waiting upon the Lord, and God accomplished 
His promise in him. He has the strength for the 
day. 

u Have you and I to-day 

Stood silent as with Christ, apart from joy, or fray 

Of life, to see His face ; 

To look, if but a moment, on its grace, 

And grow by brief companionship, more true, 

More nerved to lead, to dare, to do 



Have ^ 
Pound time, in thought, our hand to lay 
In II is, and thus com] 

will with ours, and w 
The imprint of His wish? r.<- butc 
Such contact will endure 
Throughout the day; will help us walk erect 
Through storm and flood ; deto 
Within the hidden Life Bin's dross, its stain ; 
Revive a thought of love for Him again ; 
Steady the steps which waver; help us 

The footprints meant for you ami me." 



III. 

WORK FOR TO-DAY. 
"Go work to-day in my vineyard." — Matt, xxi, 28. 

In Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Stories there is a 
description of Mowgli, who desired to avenge him- 
self upon a certain tribe. He secured the alliance 
of their enemies upon the express condition of re- 
vealing the master-word. The master-word of the 
life of to-day is "work." This command is a 
father's message to his sons. One responded "I 
go," and went not. The other refused to obey, but 
later applied himself to the task. The text is 
Christ's word to all His servants. 

"Work is the most important of all arts." To 
understand it thoroughly would simplify all other 
knowledge and conduct. Few people, however, 
really know how to work. In this age, where, per- 
haps oftener than ever before, we hear the words 
"work" and "workers," one can not observe that 
the art of work has made positive progress. In- 
deed, there is a general inclination to work as little 

56 



Wi v. 57 

•Bible, or to work earnestly for a short time, 

rder that one may pass the remainder of life in 

For some reason happiness and work have 

been dissociated in men's minds. And on the 

contrary, labor and sorrow have been united in 

thought The youth who is said to be the child of 
I fortune, is horn to wealth and leisure, and 
thereby freed from all necessity of work. How 
labor came to be discredited, we do not know. But 
we are persuaded that, from the earliest time, man 
has regarded work as a burden. In the Book of 
Genesis, Adam at first has an abundance without 
work. But he was driven from that Paradise by 
an angel with the flaming sword, who pronounces a 
curse upon the man as he goes forth to earn his 
living by the sweat of his face. Tn Athens no gen- 
tlemen worked ; slaves worked ; soldiers toiled, but 
not the citizens. In those days social position was 
imperiled when one was compelled to earn his liv- 
ing. But at last we are beginning to learn that 
work is the ladder set up between earth and heaven. 
Work and rest are not contradictory. But so 
the disinclination to work is so positive, 

there is no hope of bettering our social condition. 
If WOrk and rest were contradic: -cial life 

would be beyond redemption. Every human heart 



sS Tim: Cam. Of To-DAY, 

longs for rest The humblest realize the need of it, 
and the highest seek relief from constant strain. 
The imagination has found no better name from 

the future happy existence than the State of eternal 

rest If rest is only found in cessation from work, 
and work is a necessity, then every command to 
work is a bitter curse. But work and rest are not 
hostile. It is possible for one to work and rest 
The whole nature of man is created for activity. 
Work is a law of humanity, and nature aven. 
herself on him who would defy her law. When 
God gave command to work, He gave the consola- 
tion that work is essential to happiness and rest. 
True rest, therefore, issues from work. Intellectual 
rest occurs through the perception of the fruitful 
progress of one's work, and the successful solving 
of one's problem. Physical rest is to be found, not 
in indolence, but in the natural intermissions which 
are given by sleep and daily food, and the needful 
opportunity for worship. Such a condition of con- 
tinued and healthful activity, interrupted only by 
these natural pauses, is the happiest condition on 
earth. Genuine activity, which is not mere sport, 
has the property of becoming interesting as one 
becomes soberly absorbed in it. It has the joy of 
action and attainment. The greatest unhappiness 



Work v) 

which can be experienced is to be compelled to liV€ 
without w«»rk. and finish life without the fruit 

mplished work. Life is not given us to enjoy 
in indolence, but, so far as we may, b 
ively. Not to recognize this truth is proof that 
spiritual health has been lost. 

The dignity of the hue arts is, that we copy into 

permanence God's thoughts of the beautiful. The 

nobility of the handicrafts is, that we copy into 

permanence God's thoughts of the useful. That is 
the sanctity of the sciences: we think God's true 
thoughts after TTim. Tin's is our patent of no- 
bility: "We are workers together with God." The 
WOrkless man is a parasite upon humanity. He in- 
3 nothing of personal effort, but expects to de- 
rive all necessary q-ood therefrom. Tf a youth puts 
nothing into the common storehouse of civilization 
through his work, and takes out from a storehouse 
filled by his ancestors, he is a pauper patrician. If 

another, putting in nothing through work, takes his 
Support from the public poor-house, he is a pauper 

plebeian. In either event, he who takes something 
out of life and puts nothing into it, is a parasite and 

thief. "Let him that Stole, -teal no more, but rather 

k." The very essence of Thomas Carlyle's 

tu the idle classes was, that the}' should 



60 Tin; Cai.i. o* To-1 

produce something. The idle rich and the idle 

poor are miserable, not because the}- are either rich 
or poor, but because the}' are idle. 

The false conceptions of the dignity of work 
have imperiled the happiness of our people. So- 
cial reformers, so called, are inflaming the people 
by telling them that work is drudgery; that the 
worker is a slave and a bondman, who must rebel 
against the captains of industry. They are taught, 
not to find happiness in their work, but in more 
v\ age. The social problem is not how to escape work, 
but how to be adjusted to work as a means for 
higher manhood and womanhood. If the reward 
of man's work is in terms of gold, we might ask 
that the man who has a hundred millions should 
immediately divide his fortune. But the reward 
of work is not gold. The true reward of good work 
is the consciousness that it is well done. What 
greater insult can be ofTered a thoughtful man than 
to tell him that the reward of his work is in wages, 
when he may work as hard as the man who has a 
hundred million ! There is peril to modern society 
in the doctrine that work is degrading, and that its 
reward is only in wages. Our thinking ought to be 
regenerated from the bottom. We need to teach 
our children, by day and by night, that happiness 



\V» ikk l < IB 'f< • DA 6 i 

is in the \\<>rk we do, and thai the consciousnc 

its being done as well as possible is the great 
reward. Then are we "workers together with 

i." and have a peaee which the world's wage can 
never give, nor its absence take away. 

We do well, however, to remember that not all 
work is of equal value. There is spurious work, 
which is directed to fictitious ends. A sagacious 
person must look for something which is worth 
his honest effort Here is the reason that the 
happiest workmen are those who absolutely lose 
themselves in their work. The true artist is he 
whose soul is wholly occupied with his art. The 
true scholar is infatuated with his task. These 

pie whom we call "one-idea'd" are accomplish- 
ing the true and necessary work in the world. 

I. Let us consider the moral uses of work. It ac- 
quaints man with nature, and gives him a liberal 
education. Man's knowledge of himself and the 

rid in which he lives, comes from his work. 

Working with the soil for \<»u\, man discovered 
the beginning of agriculture. Working with a 
forked stick, he invented his plow. Carrying his 
burden across the rivers, he thought out his boat. 

Iinder his load, he mastered the horse, 
and made him bear his burden. Working with 



6a The Call o* To-day. 

wild roots, man found the grape and apple. Work- 
ing in stones, he wrought out his house. All the 
fine arts, all the knowledge, came from the daily 

task. It is work that instructs man and disciplines 

him in the great university of daily life. There 

a culture to be found in the school of toil. 

God has appointed work for the training of 

the individual in morals. Men speak of business 

as a sphere of temptation and testing ; but it 
also a drill-room in which youth may be taught 
all the fundamental moral qualities. Our Lord 
Himself was trained for His mission as a great 
religious teacher in a handicraft. He became the 
world's greatest reformer, and His preparatory 
school was a carpenter-shop. He developed all 
the root moral qualities that blossomed into the 
higher spiritualities in the years of His toil, until 
the age of thirty. In His association with men, 
lie developed sympathy with them, and an ex- 
quisite gentleness and tenderness toward poor and 
weak. The beginnings of power over men is in 
sensitiveness and sympathy. Influence is possible 
only from personal experience of the failings, privi- 
leges, ambitions, disappointments, and successes of 
our fellow-men. Xo self-centered man can develop 
sympathy with his fellow. To break down the walls 



Work po 

of prejudice and develop a knowledge of one's self 
an<! one's companions, is to develop the primary 
moral qualities essentia] to the highest character, 
God enters every child in the school of work, that 

he may beo >me a Christian. 

True work will associate the highest ideals of 

beauty with its task. Nothing is more certain than 
that we make our task beautiful or menial by the 

spirit we put into it. There are two ways in which 

a house may be approached. On our of our ave- 
nues a little home has been built during the past 

few months, but the contractor's view is one, and 
the owner's view is another. The builder toils for 
his money. He had no particular enthusiasm for 
the structure. Disliking his work, he always 
thought of pay-day. He was glad when the foun- 
dation was in, because it gave him his first install- 
ment, and he was glad when the roof was on, be- 
gave him the second payment lie hurried 

the inside finishing, ever thinking of the gold named 

He concealed under laths and mortar 

work, because he loved not his work, but his 

Mow different the owner's attitude! lie is 

an honorable, hard-working youth. This is his first 

To him the walls and ceilings are as lus- 

- in their loveliness as the walls of heaven. Thev 



64 Tin-: Call 0* To-day. 

are covered with pure idealSj holy affections, and 

the solemn love and prayer that happiness and 

beauty would till that home. There IS no decorator 

like the heart. The soul can breathe the spirit of 
beauty into any task. Remember how Fra Angelico 

painted upon his knees, and borrowed a divine lus- 
ter for his canvas. Remember how Milton, lifting 
his sightless eves toward the sky, saw the heavens 
open, and Christ standing at the right hand of God ; 
and from his vision brought a splendor to his 
solemn poem. The time has come when we must 
practice the art of carrying our work up to the 
higher spiritual level. Once, when the cathedral 
was dedicated, the priests fell upon their knees in 
solemn worship. In the future we shall learn to 
enter a shop or store or factory in the spirit of the 
reverence of our great Master, who said, "My 
Father worketh hitherto, and I work." We shall 
then know what it is to be "diligent in business, 
fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." 

Why is it, then, that there are thousands of men 
and women who defend with passion the Bible 
teachings concerning work, and yet take one day 
at the most, or perhaps none, for work ? It always 
costs an effort to rise above the customary condition 
of physical indolence. Moral laziness is original 



sin. Yielding to natural dispositions, the most ac- 
tive men would amuse themselves with playthings 
rather than work with tools. The love of work 
must, therefore, proceed from a motive stroi 
than that of indolence. It may be a low moth 
selfishness, or it may be a high motive, as the sense 
of duty or love. The second motive has this ad- 
vantage, that it is more permanent, and does not 
depend upon mere success in the work. One can 

as well accustom himself to work as lie can to self- 
indulgence, extravagance, or laziness. No virtue is 
ever securely possessed until it becomes a habit. 
Thus it is that as a man forms the habit of work, 
Stablishes the permanent resistance of indolence. 
But there is a higher reward in store, not Only 
at the end, but even now, for those who work. They 
enter more deeply and fully into the joy of the Lord. 
What is our world, with its sun and stars and har- 
. but the going forth into outer physical ex- 
iion of the inner thoughts of the ceaseless 
Worker named God? Every hour God is toiling 
upon His task. If for one instant He ceased to 
work with men, this world would be blown away 
by a single breath. There is no holier fellowship 

than to 1 -worker with God. It is the only 

life that i*> w<»rth giving to others. There is small 
5 



66 Tin: Call < >i ; To-day. 

blessing in what we do for others, which costs us 
nothing. A man may speak to us eloquently, but 
if he speaks only words, we are no richer for lis- 
tening to them. ( )nly when we serve in love, do 

we either find dee]) joy for our own hearts, or true 
blessings for others. 

II. If work is all important, we need to con- 
sider the held of our work. Where is the sphere 
of Christian service? "Go work to-day in my vine- 
yard" God's vineyard is world-wide. The sphere 
of work is not to be circumscribed. God has great 
educational plans for men. He commands some of 
His sons to co-operate with Ilim in training men 
to think right. He reveals himself as interested in 
the truest art, in literature, in philosophy, in philan- 
throphy, in commercial, social, and domestic fields. 
He opens opportunities where all his children may 
serve well. The great world is God's vineyard. 
The work for to-day is wide as the world and im- 
portant as opportunity. 

The Christian Church is, in a special sense, the 
Master's vineyard. It is commissioned to lead men 
to righteousness, to teach them the experience 
where, with new heart and new spirit, they will 
serve God and their fellow-men. Men are to be 
made good. Hearts are to be set right with heaven. 



Work i oh To da 

The conscience must be instructed. The will musl 
[thened to do good. Life will never be per- 

feet until a great spiritual work is accomplished. 

h is a serious mistake to neglect the spiritual in 

the world's great work. The spiritual is at the 

civilization. The supreme questions of life 

after all, the spiritual questions. This spiritual 

vineyard is in the midst of the universal field. The 

whole held will never be fruitful until the spiritual 

vineyard has been cultivated. There is a gentleman 
living in the Berkshire hills who delights in the 
propagation of expensive bulbs. When he began 

he imported a few of the rare bulbs, and carefully 
developed the plants in his own conservatory. In 
time the stock increased, so that his lawn was beau- 
tified with these expensive plants. Later the road- 
and every fence-corner of the great farm 

smiled with the beaut}- of the flowers. He imported 
the few at first, from Holland, but he multiplied 
and transplanted them until the whole landscape 
3 enriched by their color. The spiritual life 
must afford men and women noble thoughts, high 
and unselfish ideals, great conception of domestic 

and public life, that are to be transplanted in the 

wide world. "The wilderness shall blossom as the 
." when men find in the highest spiritual serv- 



Tin; CAU 0* To-DAY, 

ice the flowers that shall transform the world into 
the garden of the Lord Our true work is fur God 
in I lis vineyard. 

III. Several encouragements to work arc found 
in the figure employed in our text There arc dis- 
uragements of small endeavor, narrowness of 
life, but the figure of the vineyard is full of en- 
couragement It suggests the clement of infinity. 
Vegetation has this idea. The multiplication of the 
-reds sown, gives the harvest to the husbandman. 
From the seed sown, new grain grows. An almost 
infinite expansion is the law of vegetation. From 
one grain of wheat may come a nation's harvest. 
One thing will produce man}' things. All true work 
in God's vineyard has that element. Good acts and 
generous words have the' power to multiply them- 
selves. One good service has all good service. One 
righteous act will reproduce itself in higher and 
better life in the community. One of the great 
doctrines of this generation is the conservation of 
energy. We have believed that force is convertible, 
but never lost. We discover that heat, light, and 
electricity are resultants of motion. The latest 
science declares that there is but one force. It has 
been converted into all forces. Every noble thought 
produces another, and is fruitful as a seed multi- 



\\ I |RB : >H 'I I I 

plied in the harvest It" it is true, in physics, that 
..M be converted into all forces, who 
will excuse himself from work in God's vineyard 
because he is limited in power? It* we can do one 
thing, we have the quality of manifoldness. The 
noble deed of to-day will surely reappear to-mor- 
row. In the surprise of those who were rewarded 

I service to the Master, they said, "Lord, 

when did we see Thee sick or in prison, and min- 
red unto Thee?" The answer was, "In that ye 
ministered to My brethren, ye ministered unto Me." 
One good service has the element of all good serv- 
Variety and infinity of work can be developed 
n the sincere effort to do one thing best. 
But we are compelled to work wdiere we stand. 
What we may do in our little corner of life seems 
unworthy of the attempt." But the law of univer- 
sality will make it pervasive of the whole sphere of 
service. It is easy to understand how the mission- 
ary who hina may reach out in a wide 
range of influence, but it is difficult for us to com- 
prehend how any other service may have the same 
extension. Work for God is universally valuable. 
Christian service in the most obscure community 

has a power to become widely helpful. There is no 
stick thing as "wasting sweetness un the desert air." 



70 Tin; C.\\.\. 0* To-DAY, 

That may be tolerable poetry, but science laughs at 
that statement Every magnolia, rhododendn >n, 

myrtle, sweet spice, and rose makes sweet the air 
about us. From the tropics and temperate zones 
come the sweet breaths that perfume the room in 
which you tarry. Nature wastes nothing. Bach 

tiny flower makes a distinct contribution to the 

fragrance of the world. No one is shut up in 

narrow a street that his service may not minister 

to the well-being' of all men. 

There is an immortality in the work done in 
God's vineyard. We are often tempted to bewail 
the fugitive influence of our well-meant em 
Since the day be so soon over, we sometimes argue 
that we need make no special effort. We are li 
to-day, and gone to-morrow. The shadow T quickly 
follows the sunlight. Life is so fleeting that we 
hesitate to perform any work that is not permanent. 
That is the argument of short-sightedness. Genu- 
ine work will multiply itself into permanence. John 
Stuart Mill shows in his discussion of "Liberty," 
how again and again persecution put down the 
truth. I le declares that the Reformation was buried 
twenty times before its final and glorious triumph. 
In Flanders, Italy, and Spain, the essential mes- 
sage of the Reformation had been proclaimed as 



Work \. 

earnestly as in Germany. But each time it was 
crucified and buried. With wonderful pei 
the spirit of libert) rose from its grave, and blos- 
ed in Luther's Reformation. The reason it 
could not be destroyed was the divine qualit 
perennial life. 

" Truth crashed to earth will rise again ; 
The eternal years of ( rod are fa 
But error, wounded, writhes in pain, 

And dies amid his worshipers 

It has been discovered that the smallest grain 
of musk retains a penetrating perfume for seven 
thousand years. If the Infinite Creator can hide 
away in that tiny grain an odor that will manifest 
itself for seventy centuries, may He not give per- 
manent influence to the smallest worthy service 
rendered? Recent science declares that radium 

will exert its force for seventy-seven thousand 

s with undiminished power. It is not strange 
that a kind word may live to eternity. Human ac- 
tion nificant than we dreamed. We live 
in a larger sph< than we knew. To 
w<>rk in God's vineyard is to work to-day. But 
through it we serve all da; 

n John Ruskin's desk was a paper-weight made 
of a block of :halcedony. Deeply carved upon it 



7 j Tin-; Cam. oi" Tn-i 

3 the word "To-day." The great prophet of 

modern life used to-day. To-morrow could bide 

time, while to-day was on the throne. To-day is 

always here. To-day is the only opportunity we 

have for life's work. We never work to-morrow. 
Action belongs to the present. Whatever is the 
duty for to-day, let us do to-day. "Son, go work 
to-day in My vineyard," is His command. We 
must work while it is to-day, for the night cometh 
when no man can work. The clocks can not keep 
to-morrow's time. The hands on the dial point to 
the present. God's promised help for work is to- 
day. 

To-day's work is most important. Great issues 
hang in the balances to-day. Far-reaching reforms 
are here to-day, appealing for our help. All the 
problems of temperance, amusements, Sabbath ob- 
servance, purifying our politics, exalting our home 
life, the ennobling of the individual, the training of 
children, the soothing of pain, the cheering the dis- 
couraged, are all here to-day. If all God's children 
should do as some of us in all the world's work, the 
day of the world's redemption would not be at hand. 

The present opportunity is ours to revive the 
office of the good Samaritan in the world. To-day 
noble tasks are assigned every one who will re- 



Work poh To day. 73 

spond to the command, u Oo work in My vineyard/ 1 
Wc ! ur kingd( «r fi >r 

'• Blake this a day. Thci i 

In brooding over days to con 
Tlu- message of to-day is plain 

The future's lips are ever dumb. 
The work of yesterday is gone, 

Por good <>r ill, Let come what may; 

But now we face another dawn. 
Make this a day. 

The day is this; the time is now; 

No better hour was ever here — 
Who waits upon the when and how 

Remains forever in the rear — 
Tho' yesterday were wasted stuff, 

Your feet may still seek out the way, 
To-morrow is not soon enough — 
Make this a day." 



IV. 
THE a IMMANDED STRENGTH. 

Thy God hath commanded thy strength" — PSA, 

j. vm, 28. 

It is a great distance between David and Oliver 
Cromwell as he led his Ironsides up the heights of 

Dunbar; but the song and the melody were so 
mighty that they swept over the intervening cen- 
turies. When the indomitable Puritan looked up 
those heights and saw the possibilities of defeat, he 
roused the courage of every soldier by crying out, 
"Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered!" 
Marching against the Scots, he summoned every 
follower with the words, ''Thy God hath com- 
manded thy strength." The text is one of the soi 
which those of us who have no battles of Dunbar 
to fight may well sing in the midst of the wearisome 
problems of daily life. Our battles are more diffi- 
cult because they seem so insignificant, and are 
without the inspirations of the noble and picturesque 
to stir us to our best endeavor. But they determine 

74 



Tin: COMMANDED ! I n. 75 

rtant questions of life for you and me. They 
dated with everything that the true life 
here and hereafter may demand. 

This great song begins where every immortal 
must begin: in the heights above human 
life, and not on the plains of daily experience. It 
as with God. It is a vision of the greatnes 
and the sky which overarches this life of ours, 
great melody can be brought up from the earth 
unless, before you begin to sing, the great sky 
creeps in, and the atmosphere of the Infinite shall 
the setting for the finite music. God must 
be the greatest fact of human life. Behind, before, 
... and above, life must be the enveloping fact 
of a great God before there can be a melody. Every 
David, Cromwell, and warrior against serious diffi- 
culties, must begin the song that will cheer him 
>tory in the vision he has of the eternal God. 
Ut of the sky must come rain and sunshine to 
lop the harvests, SO what is above, and not 
what IS below, is the primary importance in human 

Humanity's significance is to be found in its 

relation to a great God. If you will describe what 
y«»ur thought <>f God is, it will be easy to tell what 
kind of a world vou live in. If vou believe Him 



76 Tin-; Cam. <>i ; To-day. 

to be powerless in the midst of injustice, you must 
believe that injustice has a light to rule here. But 
if your God is like the one who appeared to David's 
vision, you must believe that justice will win in the 
battle, and injustice must depart from the field in 
defeat. If your idea of God is that of a vengeful 
being, a kind of Omnipotent Autocrat, ruling with- 
out feeling, with simply a pride in the demonstra- 
tions of the power, with no enterprising love, with 
no down-reaching affection which seeks to help the 
weakest creature, you will accept a world where 
might makes right. It will be easy to know what 
kind of a world you live in, and what sort of a 
government you will allow over you, and what 
kind of a person you will ultimately become if we 
may know your conception of God. If you have 
any melody in life, it must come from the skies. 
You will always be like the ideals you cherish. Your 
own life is simply repeating on a small scale the 
vision you have of God in the sky. 

This text reveals the conception which this old 
warrior had of the Divine purpose of his own life. 
The psalmist tells us the meaning of his life prob- 
lem, and what his business must be in the world. 
He discovered what God was trying to do through 
him. As he studied his life, he saw that God was 



Tin; Com U wm D in. ^7 

making a tremendous demand upon him. He was 

unded by difficulties, , winch 

seemed to him like the invitations and commands re- 

quiring all of his strength. All his trials appealed 

with a kin<l of eloquence, demanding that all the 

s he might summon should be employed, invit- 

him out into man}- fields of opportunity and en- 

The demand upon the king was not t*<^r a 

half-hearted effort, l>nt for all the effort he could 

mand. When he seemed weak before the moun- 

of difficulties in his journey, he learned that 

intended thus to call upon him for a supreme 

effort. The awful rivers of sorrow he must cross, 

the :^ f footsore enterprise, and the weakness 

of his endeavors, he understood to be voices, saying, 

"Thy God hath commanded thy strength." 

This is the secret of many of the difficulties that 
beset <>ur lives. God wants all the power we have 
-rendered to Him. He is interested in de- 
all possible strength for us. The trials 
and discouragements that beset us are proofs, not 
of the hostility of God, but of His tender consid- 
eration of US. They indicate that 1 Strength 
in U imand. 

Here, then, is a splendid vision of human life 

and of God's purposes in that life. The greatest 



78 Tin; Call o* To-day, 

achievement in the individual is character. The 
sight that must be dearest to the Infinite Father 
the development of a soul into His greatness and 
power. That purpose has filled the vision of God 
from the beginning of time. ITc has planned to 
make man the crown and glory of all I lis creations. 
But when we look into human nature and know its 
questions and answers, we discover the inflow of 
power is measured by the outflow of strength, and 
must be persuaded that there is a deep purpose at 
the bottom of all this strenuous life. Human char- 
acter is the greatest product of creation. Character 
is the eternal result at which God has been aiming 
from the beginning. Along this path His purposes 
have traveled to develop His own likeness in human- 
ity. If this is the supreme desire of the Creator, 
what a significance it gives to life ! But what is this 
character which fills the great thought of God ? To 
have it I must have something which a star does not 
possess. The sun is obedient to a law, but he can 
not do other than shine. He is never able to say 
"no/ 1 and turn backward in his fiery pathway. He 
can not disobey. If I have nothing more than a 
star possesses, I can never reach the loftiest heights 
of human character. I must have the power of de- 
termination within me. My will must be free. If 



The Com m inded . ph, 79 

1 shali come to the greatest possible life, I must 

tnething which the great Niagara does not 

Although it can bear a thousand rain- 

3 upon its bosom, and hang its spray like a veil 

mmortality, it ran not for a moment feel the 
thrill of life that comes to God's children. It can 
dash itself into a foam before my eyes, and be- 
come a spectacle of delight, but it can not know 
one moment o\ tin ction which may come 

to me. If T am to lie God's man, \ must have the 
of life within me, enabling me to think and 

le the plan and execute, to know and do. The 
lofty mountain that stands before me can not think. 
It has never reached a conclusion from considera- 

of two thoughts. It may bear upon its hoary 
head the fleecy clouds, it may carry in its bosom 
rich mines of ore, and may he founded upon gran- 
ite, hut it can not discover the truth. I can think. 
1 must find the truth. To attain greatness of char- 
acter I must attain it. 

[a it not plain that the very necessities of our 

being and God's way of leading are matched with 
infinite wisdom? Do not even our sufferings per- 
mand what we ought to be? Let us illus- 
trate thi> by the way men gain truth. Every truth 
ft self-evident. God has not written all His 



So Tin; C.\u. <>f To-DAY. 

messages in easy manuscript) so that "the wayfar- 
ing man, though a foul, need not err therein." 
Neither is truth packed in parcels, so that one can 
procure as many boxes as he may desire. It re- 
quires effort to discover truth in its application to 
life. Thousands of schoolboys have wondered why 
God did not save them the agonizing search after 
truth. But the Infinite Love knows that all the 
possibilities of youth and manhood never will be 
realized until painstaking study is given. To ob- 
tain an education challenges the strength of the 
student. What a strange thing is truth ! You can 
not discover it and hand it over to me. It never 
will be truth to me until it is true to everything in 
my nature. How can it become truth to me ? Only 
as I seek it and find it just as you found it. There- 
fore the teacher is not able to impart it to the 
scholar. His highest ministry will be in guiding 
the scholar to find it for himself. But what a dis- 
cipline is in the search ! The man who refuses the 
effort necessary to find the truth will never know 
what he has lost by his indifference. Let us stop 
wondering why, at the beginning, the race did not 
have railroads and telephones n-engines and 

printing-presses. God is less anxious to manufac- 
ture telephones than to develop manhood. That is 



Tin; Commanded ! ph. 

the purjx tse i >f the w< >rld. Th< ng in 

the blue of the night have for their ultimate pur- 
ie the leading ol the sons of God. We are 
ight by lines of development to this high Spirit 
We never can have the truest character until we 
call forth the talents within us, in spite of the dif- 
ficulties presented. Have you ever wondered why 
you are subject to temptation? Because God has 
determined to make a man of you. This pulpy 
flesh is not manhood, it needs hone and muscle. 
Emerson said, "Difficulties exist to be surmounted.' 1 
That is the reason of their being. They are com- 
mands upon our strength. They are invitations sent 
OUt from heaven to earth. They contain intimations 
that God still believes us capable of developing real 

character. If we believe this, we should think of 
differently from our ordinary conception. If 
the loving Father wanted weak children, lie would 
simply remove the testings, barriers, and battles 
from life. These obstacles are in life because He 
determined to make men strong. 

It is Urged that if this is the real purpose of 
no help in the great CrOSS that IS Over 

the sky of Calvary, Why did Jesus suffer 
and die? Why did lie pray in agony in the garden 
of ( iethsemane ? What is the meaning < >f the atonc- 
6 



S2 Tin: C.m.i. ()!• To-day. 

ment? May we not expect that the i Christ 

will relieve humanity from its strenuous endeavor 
to overcome difficulties? Th< the great- 

command God ever gave humanity. The power 
of Calvary stirs all the nobility in life. Look at 
that noble man in the midst of ignoble companions! 
They do not value His high sentiment and gener- 
ous purpose, but His noble nature inspires the en- 
tire multitude to feel that it must perform some 
splendid service. That is the most powerful way 
of commanding men. The influence of a right ex- 
ample has a conquering persuasion. 

Jesus came into the world to be its King. He 
found no other throne than the cross. He died 
there. His figure is ever associated with the cross. 
Christ and His cross are the symbols of true relig- 
ion. Xo other symbol so comprehends His whole 
incarnation. The manger-cradle does not repre- 
sent His whole earthly life. Xo miracle that He 
performed is accepted as His emblem, but always 
we put His cross as His sign. What an influence 
1 Ie has over men because of that cross ! Christ upon 
the cross has unparalleled sovereignty. He is there 
the expression of an Infinite Love. lie is the 
Eternal Sacrifice for sin, "the Lamb of God which 
taketh awav the sins of the world." 



Tin. Cow m wi'i.i. Strength. 

" Till' IV w.lS no othci ;• 1 i tl- 

To pa^ I he | in; 

He only could unlock th< 
( )!' heaven, and let ns in." 

Bui Christ upon the cross was more than the 
world's atonement. He was its commanding In- 
spiration. So the cross stands there to develop 
every element of strength in the human soul, as well 
a- to he the world's atonement. When I see Him 
lifting up 11 is hands in holy benediction over His 
enemies, my soul says, "1 can do that. 1 can love 
my enemies." I look at Him, and His example 
commands my strength, so that I will saw "I will 
love my enemies." 1 see Jesns bearing His cross 
for others, and lie commands me so that I can 
say, "I will do that." "I will take the burdens of 
others, and they shall become my glory and 
strength." Whenever lie commands my strength, 
my whole nature must respond. 

Heaven will he a manifestation <>f God's educa- 
tional method in developing our strength. Heaven 
IS not simply a resting-place. Too often we put an 

untrue emphasis on the word "rest." Rest, 
what? Have we ever struggled and seriously suf- 
I for tlie right? We must '\^ something to be 

entitled to rest Unless our lives shall he husy in 
doiiiL . heaven can not he the place of rest. 



<4 'I'm-; Call o* To-day. 

This low conception of heaven grows out of a low 

conception of life. Rest is the benediction for those 
who work hard. Have our ideals ever cost us a 

sacrifice Have we ever gained the mastery 
through struggle? Have we ever heard God's voice 
commanding our strength in the midst of the diffi- 
cult places of life? 

Lord Nelson had won many victories on the 
sea, but at last one added victory was to come to 
him. It was when the tri-color of France floated 
upon the ships that surrounded his fleet, and the 
grain-ships that were bringing supplies to him were 
captured and their supplies fed the enemy. He 
needed more frigates to win a decisive victory. As 
he paced the deck of his flagship, fretted by the 
weakness of his fleet in the presence of so powerful 
an enemy, he said, " : Should I die this moment, you 
would find on my heart the words 'more frigates/ ' 
Day after day he scanned the horizon, but saw vic- 
tory nowhere. The English fleet wanted power, 
and did not know how to obtain it. But did Lord 
Nelson fail? He was buried at last in a coffin 
made from the masts of the enemy's flag-ship; the 
desperation of his weakness commanded the 
strength of the heroic English commander of the 
sea, and with what ships he had, under the control 



Tin: Com m vndkd ! I if. 

of the bravest officers and men, he conquered the 
enemy. Many of us are hei weak before 

the allied forces of evil. A victory over the wrong 
would mean so much to us. To drive back a vil- 
lainous passion to its dark lair, forever to de 

a carping, critical spirit, would be a splendid vie- 
in our lives. Yet, in despair, we say we need 
more strength. The Eternal God has the power, 
and the consciousness of our weakness is His com- 
mand of our strength. 

Xo man need fail in life's battle because he is too 
weak. "The Lord will give Strength unto I lis peo- 
ple." The allied forces of heaven are within his call. 
lie need not attempt to fight alone. He may with 
the vision of faith see God's armies and horsemen 
all around. He may be able to say, "The}' that are 
for us are more than all that can be against us.'* 
But the Divine help comes only to those who lead 
heroic lives. We must be educated by our diffi- 
culties. We must face our trials, relying upon the 
ngth from above. We are not put in 

a world its, but of victories. The divine op- 

portunities for power are opened to those who ac- 
cept them as God's commands to the utmost conse- 
cration. 



V. 

JOY FOR THE MORNING. 

"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh 
in the morning." — Psa. XXX, 5. 

Hkrk arc four familiar words strangely knit to- 
gether. Day and night are commonplace chang 
joy and sorrow are not strange words. But to bind 
weeping with the night, and joy with the morning, 
and set them in contrast., has been done in this text. 

Whatever may be said by philosophers, it is 
true that from the first conscious hour to the last 
moment of life, man desires to enjoy what he calls 
happiness. To find joy has been the great quest of 
mankind. The hope of obtaining it has stirred men 
to their utmost endeavors. The modern world has 
not ceased to expect the era of joy to dawn U] 
the world. It is confident that when the annuncia- 
tion hymn of Bethlehem shall have been fulfilled, 
joy will be the abiding tenant of a redeemed human- 
ity. The present age will not be content with a 

S6 



imK tin: Mof 

mere philosophic composure, nor will it be satisfi 
with pleasure as a substitute for i 

It is true that this generation h lit out 

many inventions, and perfected many comforts and 
conveniences. It has added increased wealth to 
the world's treasure. It has lessened the hours of 
labor and extended the average life at least ten 
years. One might expect to find the cup of the 
world's joy full, and all the people happy. This 

rid has been fitted up for man as no palace was 
ewr furnished for a king. Wordsworth and 
\ believed the}- could spend centuries enjoy- 
ing the rich provisions of the earth. And vet the 
inventions and development of science have not in- 
creased the art of joyous living. Tn many respects 
this is an age of sadness. Discontent mutters in 
our factories and weariness sighs in our homes. 
Man was made for blessedness; joy and peace are 
prime requisite od work; the earth is a beau- 

tiful, bountiful garden, and yet man declares that 
the pn miserably sad. 

Th rious mistal ' been made in seeki 
happiness for its own ' and expecting to find 
it upon the surface of our circumstances. P 
don and authority are n ials of happiro 

Joy is deeper than the surface of life. It is at the 



88 Tin-; Cam, of To-day. 

heart of life. Joy IS a quality of living. It is spir- 
itual. St. Paul declares it to be one of the fruits 
of the Spirit 

Men are not wrong in wishing for joy, but are 

mistaken in the way they seek it. What IS joy? It 

is the soul's satisfaction in what Dr. Van Dyke has 

called "the vital impulse — the rhythm of the in- 
ward life — the melody of a heart that has found its 
keynote." What the song is to the meadow-lark, 
what the beauty and fragrance are to the flower, 

what ripeness is to the apple, what culture and re- 
finement are to the intellect, joy is to the soul. As 
vulgarity and ignorance indicate a neglected mind, 
so unhappiness and misery proclaim a neglected 
heart. 

The soul was made for joy and peace. Xext to 
the art of living righteously and kindly is the art 
of living in happiness and quietness. Joy is not 
only a privilege of life, but is a duty. The fingers 
may touch the strings of sorrow and pain on the 
harp of the soul, but the blessed nature will vibrate 
with joy even in sorrow. The full chord of the 
soul will chorus with joy the plaintive strain of 
suffering. Though this world was built as the 
home of joy, we may calmly confess that troubles, 
temptations, and adversities ofttimes tarry in it for a 



tofi n\i: Mob 

time. But they are not abidinj They are 

the transients in life hostelries. "W< may 

endure for a night, btt1 joy cometh in the morning." 
is the landlord. Joy is the host Joj has the 
right to possess this life. Afflictions and disap- 
pointments visit with us, but joy will abide forever. 
This is the only world in which God's children may 
suffer, for in the world to come "sorrow and sigh- 
ing shall Bee away." 

We have discovered that many things we suffer 
work for the fullness of joy in transforming the 
bad to the good, the selfishness into sympathy. 
Jesus had a joy before Ilim, even in enduring the 
cross and despising the shame. Steel is iron plus 
the skillful tempering of the fire. Statues are mar- 
ble plus the sharp blows of the chisel in the hand 
of the artist But the fire and the blows are not 
for the purpose of causing pain. The joy of the 
crucible is to release the Sashing diamond. The 

of the chisel is the emancipation of the fair 
from the marble. Even suffering may be com- 
missioned to bring joy to the soul. 

It is not by chance that men have desired happi- 
ness and sought joy. God has revealed His thought 

of joy in the singing birds, the gurgling brooks, the 
golden clouds, the Smiling babe, the serene light 



90 Tin. Call o* To-day, 

that glows upon the face of the aged saint. God 

wills joy for all His children. It is His gift to 

the surrendered life, which finds its rhythm in obe- 
dience to God's control. 

Jesus Christ was the world's joy-bringer. His 
great inaugural Sermon on the Mount rings the 
wonderful chimes of blessedness for all men. Xine 
times he declared that the life is "happy" which 
follows Him. His life and words enlarged the 
kingdom of joy for this world. His Gospel is the 
blessed Gospel because it afifords the soul the sat- 
isfaction of spiritual attainment. The note of the 
Gospel of Christ is never a sad moan, but the shout 
of gladness. Its good word is concerning a joy 
that may be full. 

There is therefore a divine doctrine of joy for 
this world. The purest worship is the worship of 
a God-fixed joy. "The joy of the Lord is your 
strength. " Let us accept without reserve the teach- 
ing of our Lord concerning the possibility, nay, 
even the duty, of happiness. It is the divine stamp 
of His religion. The man who is not a joyous 
Christian is not the right kind of a Christian. The 
worrying, distressing disciples of our Master have 
certainly not received His peace which He gave 
unto them. 



I n fofi riii: M« if 

The Church has failed in her gr 
ments because she has lost her joy. The chall 
the earl} Church gave the world was the challenge 

ni an exultant joy. Accepting that challenge the 
world has always suffered defeat when the "j 1 
the Lord has been the strength" of the Church. 

Moderator Van Dyke closed the sermon bef 
the Genera] Assembly of the Presbyterian Church 
1». prophesying that "the Church that the twentieth 
century will hear most gladly and honor most sin- 
cerely, will have two marks. Tt will be the Church 
that teaches most clearly and Strongly the truths 
that Jesus taught It will he the Church that finds 

I happiness in living the simple life and doing 

'. in this world." 

No natural phenomena are more familiar to us 
than night and morning. Poetry, painting, and 
Statuary have regarded them in their most pic- 
turesque Piety has stmg is southing ves- 
per-hymn, or joined the gathering shades of even- 

and the broadening light of daybreak. All the 

physical, intellectual, commercial, and social — per- 

we might venture to add, the religious — ar- 
rangements of mankind adjust themselves to these 
natural divisions of time. Let US partially re- 



92 Tin; (\\i.i. <>i- To-i>ay. 

examine them, not for intellectual recreation, but 
for spiritual profit. 

When the axial revolution of the earth brings 
night to the side of the planet we inhabit, we are 

first of all conscious of the departure of light 
That is so obtrusive a phenomenon that all see it. 
It is not quite so open to observation that a change 
lias taken place in our thermal and electric condi- 
tion, but it is no less true that the active agencies 
oi the great source of heat and electricity have 
erased to play upon us as well as that of light. 
There is absence of light, departure of heat by ra- 
diation, and a change in the electric condition, and 
these affect all plants, all beasts, all men. 

The difficulty of seeing causes a suspension of 
work. Men's restlessness leads to the production of 
artificial lights, but these must necessarily be lim- 
ited. A lighthouse may show where the coast is, 
but it does not reveal the rocks. We may make a 
light to read our books, but it is always injurious 
to the eyes. We can never make night day. Men 
can not be about factories and shops and wharves 
and farms as in the day. Work must be suspended 
wholly, or prosecuted partially under great disad- 
vantages. Sleep comes with inactivity. Flowers 
fold up their petals or droop in the night-drip. 



Jov K>H Tin: Mo 93 

Birds hush their songs and cover their young; and 
those thai wake arc exceptional, like the nigfitin- 
musical, most melancholy;" and the 
whip-poor-will, most melancholy, most unmusical; 
or are stupid birds, like owls; or foul, like bat- 
birds of evil omen. Even wild beasts rest in their 
lair, except, perhaps, the sneaking fox or prowling 
jackal, whom hunger drives through the darkness 

its pre}'. The innocent and good are asleep. 

The bad are awake — the thief, the burglar, the 
adulterer, the murderer, and she whose "feet go 
down to death," whose "steps take hold on hell." 
Idle boy-baby sleeps in the cradle, the young scape- 
grace is in the midst ^i his revels. Men separate. 
They have crowded the streets and the markets 
during the day, the markets and streets are de- 
serted at night. The commingled battalions of hos- 
tile armies draw off to their several camps, for 
"the bugle sounds truce'' when the night-clouds 
|< >wer. 

All things seem exaggerated in the sad light of 

Stars. In the gloaming of evening, and in the 

gloom of night, natural objects take on mystical 

shapes and I preternatural fancies of the 

grotesque or horrible. 

Night is the time to weep. Griefs that are kept 



94 Ths Call o* To-day, 

in abeyance by business or social duties, find vent 
in sighs and groans and tears. David weeps for 

his fallen Absalom, Eli mourns over his dissolute 
sons. The wife, who has been all day pale be- 
cause of the sin of her husband, sits in the flush of 
her sorrow, because she now ceases to control her 

countenance when none can see her weep, and make 
her tears a fresh disgrace to the man she love-. 
The merchant on the eve of bankruptcy, who has 
been so cheery all day, that none might discover 
his plight, now walks the apartments of his man- 
sion, creeps in to gaze upon his children happy in 
their sleep, and then goes to wring his hands in 
bitter anticipation of the crush of his fortunes, and 
the change in the circumstances of his children 
which may come with the morrow. Unrequited 
love looks at the cold stars, cries, and has no re- 
sponse, weeps and has no soother. The sinner, 
smitten with a sense of his guilt, cowers in the 
darkness, wets his pillow with his tears, fills the 
shades of night with frightful images of retribution, 
and fears to sleep, lest he wake in the hell of an 
everlasting night. Even physical pain intensifies 
in the darkness. O, how long the night lengthens! 
All sufferers "long for the morning." 

"O, the waiting in the watches of the flight I 

In the darkness, desolation, and contrition, and affright; 



I ob mm: Mo 

that holds tit shut mall delight; 

iry fancy that forever we 
ranting i m — 

The ever weary eyeli <• — 

in the dreary, weary watches <>i" the night.' 1 

How longing for the morning becomes in all climes 

the representation of the most intense desire of the 

And thus night represents Ignorance, inac- 

;. separation, sorrow, death. 

We know the one cause of all these things: 
We have been turned away from the sun. Our con- 
ditions of light, heat, and electricity have changed, 
and these three are the promoters of life and 
growth, of health and activity, of strength and 
beauty. 

I low striking a representation is this of the dark 

of man's spiritual experience! The night of 

the sotil ! How desolate and dreary it is! In the 

v. the SOUl is suffering the absence of light. 

Darkness lies on all the realm of thought. Arti- 
ficial lights are employed, hut nothing can he seen 
naturally in light that is not from the sun, for God 
created all things to be seen in sunlight Hence 
comes all the confusion of thought that belongs to 
an unregenerate mean. He thinks he sees; he does 

not see; but nothing is in the right light; there is a 
mist and gloom, an inaccuracy and K lion, 



96 Tin; Call of To-DAY, 

a disturbance of shades because of the absence of 
the light which belongs to him, H by the 

c<>1<1 light of stars, but they arc the suns of other 

Systems, not his. They are unhelpful, and indeed 

aggravating. When the light of the glory of God, 

shining in the face of Jesus who is the Sun of 

Righteousness, fails to fall on any soul, how can he 
see God and man and sin and duty — or any other 
thing — in a right light? 

All the emotional nature goes wrong or grows 
cold, and becomes torpid when the light is gone. 
Men and women love, but love neither wisely or 
well. Good angels go away. Bad passions come. 
It is night. The hyena, the bat, the owl-birds that 
defile and beasts that rave, are swinging or raging 
through the heart. All forms of selfishness revel 
under the cover of the darkness. 

The will grows sleepy in the gloom. The elec- 
trifying influence of the Holy Ghost is withheld. 
The sensitive soul has been benumbed. There is 
still life. The man is alive to grief. He feels that 
something is absent, the presence of which is de- 
sirable. 

The trouble of the unregenerate heart is that 
it is turned away from the Sun of the Soul, Jesus 
Christ, the center of the svstem of the universe. 



J( jy i ■'« iB 1 n 1: M(>K.\ INC. o/ 

So 1- it is night, weeping will endure) and 

night will last until we turn ourselves to the sun. 

With night, day stands in such splendid con- 
trast ! There comes a twilight after the deep 'lark- 
There was a twilight in the evening which 
broadened into thickest gloom, but this twilight 
lens into greater light As one watches the 

horizon at the east, on first the faintest in- 

sinuation of light, a modest look into the face of 

the darkness, which is quickly withdrawn, and then 
ated, and again and again, growing holder, 

until the little ray holds its place, and another 
comes to keep it company; and day is approaching; 
and the stars that were so bold in the darkness 
n to pale; as the day comes on they sink deep 
up into the skies out of our sight, and night is 
pushed further and further westward, retreating 
before the conquering day, now flaming up and 
touching every cloud and mist and mountain-top 
and steeple and window-pane with fresh glory, until 
all the landscape is aglow, and nature wipes the 
dewy tear- of darkness from her eyes. 

With the SUn comes not only light, but heat and 
electricity as well. These three are full of life. 
Everywhere there is animation. The birds have 

felt prophetic thrills of the coming of the morning, 

7 



9S Tii 1; Call o* To-day. 

an<l the lark has gone up t<> his observatory in the 
high air to look out for the coming brightness. 
Domestic animals revive. The horse neighs in his 
stable, the sheep bleats in its field, for the voice of 
chanticleer has roused them. Men go forth to their 

work. The team is driven afield. The band is put 
on the wheel of the factory, and the hum begins in 

the workshops of the artisans and market-place of 
the traders. Love gives its morning kiss ; parents 
and children salute. Men rush out to business, and 
children to play. The streets are thronged. 

Life has come back with light. All the innocent, 
the good, the gifted, the active souls are at work. 
The owl has shut down his huge eyes, the bat folded 
its leathern wings, the snake lies still in the sun- 
light, the wild beasts retreat from the sounds of 
humanity. The police-eye of the sun has sent thief 
and robber and burglar and murderer away from 
their destructive work. Men collect for consulta- 
tion and co-operation. The face of a man sharp- 
eneth the face of his fellow-men. A glowing mag- 
netism is generated. To earnest thought and anx- 
ious business and panting pleasure the hours seem 
too short. Even the sufferer is relieved. As he 
lies on his cot in the hospital he ceases to be an- 
noyed by the ticking of the clock, which had seemed 



i OB Tin: MORN] N 

all night to be a mechanical contrivance for lei 
ruin- the hours, The light is lei into the chamber, 
new warmth, new electric influences. Friends come 
ami go. There are voices in the street, in the hall, 
by the bedside. Even in his bitter pain he is helped 
by the grasp of a friendly hand or the glance of a 
friendly eye. The hours arc shortened. All brains, 

all hearts, all hands arc at work. Humanity is ad- 
vanced, and civilization makes progress. For 
weeping we have the night, for joy we have the 
day. 

We know the cause of all the delightful phe- 
nomena which succeed the doleful night; we have 
been turned to the sun. In this we have a striking 
mentation of the bright side of man's spiritual 
experience' The day of the soul, how bright, how 
Light has come hack. Things are 
as they really are. The eyes of the mind are 
1 to the torture or to the unperccived 
injurious] E artificial lights. Confusions dis- 

appear. A man sees things in a right light, unex- 

rated. Superstitions and fears and image 
grotesque distortion U scattered. I lis heart 

ws better, calmer, warmer, purer, stronger. 

Tl: doing its work. It is not the 

enervating heat of the furnace, hut the always 

LC 



ioo Tin-; Call of To-day. 

healthful heat of the sun. He grows inwardly 
wholesome. Bad spirits flee away. Good angels 
and sweet loves come back into his heart. The bats 
and hyenas of suspicion, hate, and revenge are 
driven forth. Hisses as of serpents are no more 
heard, but the voice of the turtle-dove is cooing in 
his spirit. 

His will receives a tonic. The electric influence 
of the Holy Ghost is on his soul. His will girds up 
itself. He may not have been able to study the 
causes of this great change, but he is joyfully con- 
scious of them. Recently our scientific men have 
made great discoveries for the sanitary influence of 
sunlight. Some physicians give their patients sun- 
baths, submitting the person to the direct rays of 
the sun. This is said to produce some of the re- 
sults which are supposed to be caused by taking 
iron, being, however, a better tonic. Here again 
modern science is corroborating the songs of the 
old inspired poets. The Sun of Righteousness is 
the health of the countenance of those who live in 
His light. The regenerated man has joy because he 
has been turned to the Sun of the Soul, Jesus Christ, 
the center of the system of the universe. So long 
as it is day we have the joy of the day; and day 
will last until we turn ourselves away from the 
Sun. 



i por 1 11 1 : Morn i n toj 

Another lesson of importance is that G< 
work- go forward in the order of — first night, then 
morning. In the earliest recorded syllables of time 
we have the original chronological statement of 
Moses: "And the evening and the morning were 
the first day." It was first darkness, then light 
The day did not begin with brightness, but with 

m, The processions of history have walked in 

that way ever since, and God's mighty doings have 

been wrought in that type. It is interesting to trace 
it in even- department of nature and of humanity. 

It seems to have been one of the deepest and most 
pervading ideas in the Infinite Mind. Where the 
lofty mountain now stands in grandeur was orig- 
inal silent darkness of nothingness. Then chaos 
d tumultuously in the disorderly rout of 
things that had been created by God. The ponder- 
ous mass was a ponderous mess. Through the 
emptiness, shapeless matter rolled and fell, and 
: . and jerked and slid, unguided by the wisdom 
of law, tinheld by the hand i>\ gravitation, confusion 
smiting confusion until whatever was, was utterly 
founded. There was no creature to see and 

suffer. 

So in the darkness there went forward what can 

not possibly be described in human words, because 



102 The Call or To-day. 

law was lone;- before Speech, and every word has 

reference to law. We can only approach the idea 

by pulling pin after pin out of the splendid taber- 
nacle of the universe, and letting it fall in ruinous 
decay. But "fall" and "ruinous" and "decay" have 
reference to law. The vast oppositeness of the 
original to the present state of affairs is begun to 
be perceived by noticing how all our thoughts and 
expressions go on in obedience to law. On chaos 
law fell, and through chaos law thrilled, the first 
symptom of life. Creation was born in the even- 
ing. The first swing of the pendulum of the el 
of time marked the first instant of the evening. "The 
evening and the morning were the first day." 

The Bible follows nature on this same type. Its 
day begins in the darkness of the original state of 
the universe, and emerges in the cosmos of an or- 
derly physical, intellectual, and moral world. It 
begins in the evening of the history of humanity, 
its dim infancy and youth, and emerges in the glory 
of the redeemed spirit. It begins with man groping 
through the byways of earth, and ends with a man 
walking in the open golden streets of the Xew Jeru- 
salem. It begins with the evening of Adam, and 
ends with the morning of Jesus. 

The same law holds good in the case of each in- 



J«>v ft)R Tin; Mo io^ 

dividual man. His earliest beginnings in embryo 
are in darkness and the peril thereof. How long 
that evening seems when we attentively regard it! 

Months, and no senses; then and months 

before any child can use them. Intellect lies like a 
landscape in the night. Then the dawnings of in- 
telligence show mind more and more. Sometimes 
no morning comes, and then all the human life is 
an evening, but there is no complete day. 

The same holds true in each department of 
human exertion. Men usually begin life poor. It 
ceptional when men's childhood and youth are 
their happiest time. The struggle for existence ^oes 
forward. The skill to win the bread has first to be 
acquired, and then exerted, before the joy of the 
bread comes. Tt is quite unnatural when the morn- 
ing precedes the evening, and men have every 
luxury and brightness in youth, and every privation 
and i^loom in old age. The earliest years are the 
darkest Comfort and competence should follow 

in the later years. Tt will cheer many a dark hour 

to remember that the day follows the night It is 
often darkest just before the dawn. 

All our inventions have followed that principle. 

Wln-n we had no tools men shaped the crooked 

stick to make a plow, and in their own bodies found 



taj Tin'. Call o* Vo-day. 

models of the needed implements. All our modern 
machinery has been the developed conveniences for 
our necessary work. The day follows the night in 
mechanics. 

The morning will come in all God's universe. 
Divine prophets of the day and joy are on every 
hand. God has not left Himself without a thou- 
sand witnesses of His purpose to bring the day 
and all its represents to this world. Weeping may 
lodge with us for a night, but joy comes shouting 
and singing with the gray dawn. Joy is the right- 
ful tenant. Sorrow is not the proprietor of life. 

That blessed Gospel of joy is given all men 
for their help. Those who suffer in toil, the me- 
chanic, the farmer, the seamstress, the sufferer, the 
merchant with his many cares, for all who sit in 
darkness and weep over the disappointments of 
life, this word of comfort and strength is given. 
The morning is coming and with the day will be 
joy. The morning climbing the steeps of the day 
is here ! Eyes are opened ! Pain is soothed ! The 
clouds float away ! The stars are lost in the day- 
light ! Xew meanings are given all things ! The 
new day wherein dwelleth righteousness is here. 
The light of it shall never go out in darkness and 
cruelty. It is the beginning of God's glorious day. 



, for tin: Morning, 105 

Brothers, shall we join tin* joyous thronging tro | 

the day? Shall we not march with those singing 
with the voice of a great multitude, as the vo\ 
of man}- waters and the voice of the mighty chorus 
in training for the Hallelujah Chorus? There will 
yet he the shout, "Alleluiah, the Lord God Omnipo- 
tent reigneth!" We are preparing for that song. 
Weeping shall fly away. Tears shall he wiped from 
all eyes. The morning of life, with troops of joy,, 
is breaking upon us. 



VI. 

THE MIGHTY APPEAL OF USEFULNESS. 

"Come thou with us, and we will do thee good; for 
the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel. 
. . . Leave us not, I pray thee; forasmuch 
as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the 
wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of 
eyes." — Num. x, 29, 31. 

ISRAEL was now at the edge of the desert, be- 
yond which future wanderings would be full of 
difficulty. They would be beset on either hand with 
dangerous foes. The rocks and defiles afforded 
the lurking-place of their enemies. Though Moses 
was bright with the confidence of faith, he appeals 
to Hobab, his kinsman, to share the great reward 
that the Promised Land held for the enslaved na- 
tion. He asks him to cast his lot with them, and 
plainly offers the reward in his personal good as an 
inducement. There were great promises of a land 
so rich and abundant as to be described as the "land 
of milk and honey/' held before Israel. Moses 

106 



Tin: M [GHTY Ai-i'i: \i .107 

commanded the resources thai would enable him to 
fulfil] his promise to Hobab, "We will do thee good ; 
for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." 
But Hobab refused. It is probable that he did not 
doubt God, who had [ed the enslaved nation out of 
their bondage, and had delivered them at the Red 
1 pursuing taskmasters. Neither did he 
doubt the future of Israel as to the fulfillment of 
the covenant promise God had made to them. But 
he knew the present condition of that nation, diso- 
bedient, rebellious, and unwilling to be led. The 
children of Israel daily vexed Moses, and destroyed 

themselves. Fellowship with them was not attract- 
ive to this bold wanderer of the desert His own 

interest seemed to him satisfying. He was not 
r«.ad\- for a new venture. He did not especially 
desire the "good" that Moses and Israel were seek- 

He was quite content with the freedom the 

wilderness offered him. With his own camp, his 
-men, and Bocks, he preferred to care tor him- 

and to enjoy the resources of the country al- 
ready familiar to him. Therefore he answered, "I 

will not go, but I will depart to mine own land and 
kindred.' 1 The prosped "I* his personal enrichment 
and blessing did not interest him. 

But Moses, the great leader had a s( cond plea 



io8 Tin-; Cam. o* To-day. 

more powerful to such a man than the appeal of 
personal gain. The second appeal was for Israel's 
sake. Ilobah knew the country; he could he eves 
for a wandering nation seeking paths through the 
wilderness to the Land of Promise. He could be a 
guide for these pilgrims. His knowledge of the re- 
sources of the land might be useful to them in their 
necessities. His influence with the native tribes 
would help if he turned it to Israel's cause. There- 
fore, Moses' appeal was to Hobab's heart and his 
heroic spirit rather than his temporal interest : 
"Leave us not I pray thee ; forasmuch as thou 
knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, 
and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes/' The 
record does not tell us that he refused this second 
appeal. The silence of the Book may indicate that 
he accepted the commission of usefulness to Israel. 
Henceforth he journeys with them, he counsels 
with Moses and the leaders of the people, he di- 
rects their defenses against their enemies, he casts 
his lot with them. So Hobab and Moses continue 
in the leadership. 

This twofold appeal is the great argument which 
the Church must make to-day. We shall be true to 
God's commission given to the good and strong, 
when we apply it to those of this generation who 



Tin-: Mice I \ Aiti: \i. o* (JsEPULN 

o able to help in establishing the great kingdom 
rth. Let us study the two kinds of 
invitation. 

"Come, and we will do thee good: for the Lord 
hath spoken good concerning Israel." That appeal 
is always proper for the Christian Church to give, 
and equally proper for the individual to accept. 

The Church may say with full emphasis and earnest 
pleading, "Come, and we will do thee good." The 
Church has Divine promises, the fulfillment of 
which brings the inflow of special blessings. The 
privilege of holy fellowship and the sharing of 
the greatest good are afforded Christian disciples. 
The world, with its sin and sorrow, is invited to 
share the Heavenly Father's goodness. The Gos- 
pel calls men to pardon, peace, and manifold riches 
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The Church is estab- 
lished in the world to point the way of pardon, love, 
and joy to need}- men. It must never lose its right 
ie, and we will do thee good: for the 

'. hath spoken good concerning us." The 
evangel of Christ is the best word this world has 

ever heard, and if the Church shall fail to repeat 
the blessed invitation, "Come," to all men, she will 

vacate her greatest privilege in serving humanity. 

What would you say to a hungry child whom you 



1 10 Tu i; Cau i 'i' To-day. 

found crying for bread on the street on a wini 
night? Would not your reason as well as your 
sentiment persuade you that the most immediate 
service would be to supply food? If you found a 
boy growing up in ignorance and the vice of the 
community in which he lived, would not the first 
service rendered he to remove him from the perils 
of ignorance and crime? If in the burning building 
you saw, with pathetic appeal, some form appear at 
an upper window, would not the first great duty 
of the fire department be to rescue the imperiled 
life? The instinct of self-preservation is implanted 
in every heart. To save men is a Divine commis- 
sion. To reach out helping hands to those who are 
in despair is the work of God as manifestly as the 
education of childhood and youth. The appeal must 
be made, and God's people must continue to em- 
phasize the invitations of the Gospel. The Bible 
is full of appeals like this made by Moses to Hobab. 
It has its "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to 
the waters." Its most familiar picture of the Gos- 
pel is the Savior of men, with outstretched hands of 
invitation, saying, "Come unto me, all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Its 
prophets, singers, kings, priests, Christ Himself and 
His disciples, all had the great word, "Come," at 



Tim; MlGHTY .\rrr..\i. < >r I '>r.i-ri.\T & i i i 

the heart ol their message. The n i listn, 

like the evangelism of all ageSj will be a n* 
salvation for the sinful and wayward children oJ 
men. To declare that "Christ died for all men/' 
as the Lincolnshire Methodist woman did to Tenny- 
son, is indeed "old news, L, r ""d news, and new 
news.'* The Christian Chnreh must never forget 

that commission. The world will always need some 

• to Cry "Come," and some finger must always 
point to the erueified Redeemer. The blessed in- 
vitation of the Gospel must always ring out. May 
the altars of the Church never lose the glory of 
helping lost men and women to the Divine Savior! 
And yet, if that were the only invitation that 
the Church has to give the world, we might he 
uneasy. The motive of self-interest can not long 
be followed without leading to selfishn< 'fish- 

is the heart of sin. If the community had noth- 
ing better for a starving child than a loaf ^i bread, 
iuld pauperize him. The community provides 

schools, instruction in morals and religion. The 
hungry outcast crying on a winter's night must 
more than the immediate satisfaction of an ap- 
petite. Self-inl ■ t must be supplemented by a 
higher interest The appeal must not simply be 
made, "Come, and we will do thee good," but the 



n2 Tin-; Call o* To-day, 

supplemental appeal will give meaning to the 
earnest persuasion given in the Evangel, "Come 
and be saved," in order to help "save Others/' We 

are invited to hear the cross, not only for the crown 
that may encircle our own brow, but for the crown 
that may be possible for others. 

The Christian Church is not in the world solely 
for salvage, rescuing the flotsam and jetsam, and 
saving human wreckage on the sea of life. It must 
always be the glory of the faith that it has sym- 
pathy and power to save broken, battered lives along 
life's way ; but it must do more than saving men. 
It must save men for service. Its Gospel includes 
the declaration that we are " fellow- workers to- 
gether with God." Its summons is a call to great 
work, its devotion to God is to be seen in its devo- 
tion to God's children. God has revealed no neces- 
sity in Himself which we may supply. He has 
linked Himself with His poor and tempted chil- 
dren ; so that the Church of to-day has for every 
strong and capable soul the old message of Moses 
to Hobab, "Thou mayest be to us instead of eyes.* 

Think of the Church's task in winning a world 
from self to God! To persuade men that right is 
nobler than weakly yielding to wrong, to inspire 
great souls with the desire to help rather than be, 



Tin: M [Chty Appeal ess. 113 

helped, is her mission. To bring light in the midst 
of the great darkness is her responsibility. The 
Church is anointed to preach the Gospel to the 
. to heal the broken-hearted, to bring deliver- 
ance to the captives, the recovering ol sight to the 
blind, to set at liberty them that are bound. That 
was the vision that glowed before the eyes of the 

Redeemer of the world that day in the synagogue 

when He expounded the words that were read in 

their hearing. He announced the fulfillment of the 

old prophetie vision in Himself. What a warfare 
QSt evil the kingdom of righteousness must 
! Evil is intrenched in high places as well as 
in the low. Against wrong in the individual, the 
commercial and social life, is a relentless and life- 
struggle. Can any heroic soul sit in ease and 
refu>e the call to a great service in a contest so 
bitterly waged? Though you may know nothing 
of the passion of the saints to follow a holy life, 
what is the appeal for service the world's Redeemer 
makes to your heart? If you do not find in the 

Gospels the wondrous story of love's redemption 

wrought out in the high philosophy of heaven. 
there not come a mighty appeal, as you S< 
Christ going to the world's redemption hearing His 
cross, suffering and dying to deliver sinful men 

8 



ii4 ThB Cam. of To-day. 

from their bondage? Do not the Gospels call to 
every equipped life to conic to the help of the Lord 
against the mighty? 

What more glorious use can be made of knowl- 
edge, influence, and personal strength than to turn 
them to the help of the needy? If your vision is 
penetrating and clear, what nobler service can you 
render than to "be eyes" for those who may not see 
afar? If your hand has strength and cunning, to 
what better use may it be turned than lifting the 
burdens of the weak and teaching the unskillful how 
best to accomplish their task? If you have wealth, 
you have possession of a power for good which is 
nearly omnipotent, if rightly applied. What more 
worthy aim can lead men and women of wealth 
than that through their help the poor may catch 
visions of the highest and holiest life? If we have 
the gift of prophecy, we must use it for the instruc- 
tion of the ignorant, if we retain it. To hesitate is 
ingloriously to fail ; selfishly to keep for ourselves 
what God has intended shall serve His children, is 
to lose life with all its opportunities of good. 
Hobab's knowledge and influence never were more 
precious to him than when, having refused the ap- 
peal to enrich himself, he accepted the opportunity 
to assist others. As the new dangers arose, and he 



Tii i: M n.irrv Aria: w. or I Vr.n i .*• I i.s 

helped Moses meet them and conquer them, his own 
mind and soul grew imperial. By the number, mag- 
nitude, and stress of the responsibilities which he 
accepted in his service of others, he was developed 
into his own worthiest life. When Garibaldi was 
ited at Rome he issued his immortal appeal: 
liers, 1 am without money and without re- 
ward. I have nothing to offer you but cold and 
hunger, and rags and hardship. Let him who loves 
his country follow me." But with that summons to 
self-denial and patriotism he gathered to his side the 
choicest souls of his generation. The men who fol- 
lowed Garibaldi in response to that appeal became 
courageous heroes themselves. When our Lord 
turned and said to the multitude, "The Son of man 
hath not where to lay His head," and invited them 
to follow Him, He was calling to men and women 
who had counted the cost, and were ready to sur- 
render themselves to the cause of purity, truth, and 
human helpfulness. The way of life is narrow; the 
gate to it is narrow; but the narrowness ^i the way 
and the gate are its glory. MaiTOWness ^\ the way 
demands energy, high purpose, and npble persever- 
ance. There is no other way of success in life but 
the narrow way. To invite a great soul to a broad 
path is to invite him to smallness, to the cessation of 



1 16 Tin-; Calx o* To-day, 

growth, and impotence. The cry has been heard in 
every age, "Would God it were easier to be good!" 

"And would God it would be easier to redeem the 

earth!" But that is a mistaken cry. When the ten 

spies returned from Canaan murmuring because 
of the obstacles to their conquest, their murmuring 

was an evidence of weakness of character; but the 
cry of Caleb and Joshua was, "Up, let us conquer 
these giants, and take their walled cities." That 
was the token of the greatness of the two. Jesus 
Christ did not come primarily to change the circum- 
stances that should make life easy, but to give a 
new incentive and lofty inspiration that would en- 
able men to meet life's circumstances as they are. 
He never promised His friends that the path of 
duty should be free from danger. In the spirit of 
the Spartan mother who charged her soldier son, 
"Come home with your shield or on it," Christ says 
to all His disciples, "Take the field and save human- 
ity, cost wdiat it may." It is always true that the 
choice of the broad path of personal ease and com- 
fort, instead of the narrow path of duty, leads to 
the loss of self-respect, the world's esteem, and 
true success. Sir Henry Stanley describes bravery 
as a requisite for those who push into the African 
forest, and says: "The bigger the work the greater 



Tm: Mighty Am; u o* 1 n / 

the joy in doing it. The whole-hearted striving and 
wrestling with difficulty to lay hold with a firm grip 
and level head, and the calm resolution of the mon- 
Bter,and tugging and toiling and wrestling at it to- 
day, to-morrow, and the next, until it is done, — is 
the soldier's creed of forward, ever forward; it is 
the man's faith that for this task he was born." 
When McKay wrote from Uganda in Africa to the 

• Church, he said, "For our work at this station 
we want the best men in England ; not a man who 
can be easily spared, but the man who can not be 
spared/ 1 Christianity from the beginning has 

. n upon tasks that were so -real as to require 
the consecration of all its power. "O, pray not for 
easy lives, pray to be stronger men; do not pray 
for tasks equal to your power, pray for power equal 
to your tasks ; then the doing of your work shall he 
no miracle, but you shall be a miracle; every day 
you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of the 
life which has cuine to you by the grace of God." 



VII. 
RE-ENLISTED STRENGTH. 

"But lie himself went a day's journey into the wil- 
derness, and came and sat dozen under a juniper- 
tree ; and he requested for himself that he might 
die" — i Kings xix, 4. 

Only yesterday Elijah was the hero of a great 
victory over a false religion, its priests, the king 
and queen. On Cannel he waited through the fruit- 
less attempts of the priests of Baal to meet the fire- 
test, and calmly called upon the Lord God, whom 
he served. His God answered by fire, and a na- 
tion was swept from idolatry to faith in the true 
God. He stood one man as against four hundred 
priests of Baal. Elijah plus his God vanquished 
the four hundred and their god. Yesterday Elijah 
was invincible. The heroic and dauntless spirit of a 
man with sublime faith in his God registered a 
great conquest. The people had proclaimed, ''The 
Lord, He is the God." The false prophets had 
been slain. Rain came to the parched land. "And 
the hand of the Lord was on Elijah/' 

1 18 



Ri i) Strength. i is 

But to-day Elijah is in the wilderness. An 
eclipse has darkened his sun. He is not heroi 
day. He is a coward flying from the threats of an 
infuriated queen. No royal triumph is accorded the 
prophet of God as he hastens to the wildeni 
He takes his place by the side of Moses, who comes 

n from face-to-face conference with Jehovah, 
Id to wrath which shut the gates of the Prom- 
ised Land against him. Samson, after a great vic- 
tory in which he had smitten a thousand men, faints 
from thirst, and complains of his wretched: 
The mighty man is weak like other men when he is 
shorn of his strength. Jonah, after a day of most 
successful preaching in Nineveh, is in despair be- 
cause of his success in turning a wicked people to 
repentance. Richelieu, the craftiest statesman of 
Europe, had a series of brilliant diplomatic vic- 

3. lie was courted by all rulers. But what a 
mournful contrast is in his miserable lonelr 

"If 1 had served my God as well as my kin--, Me 
would not have deserted me." Tlie "Little Em- 
peror/ 1 whose cruel ambition had Swept Europe 
with war and carnage is pictured standing on lonely 
St. Helena, scanning the sea towards France. No 

mure pathetic picture can be seen. ( mce feared by 
all, at last he is the prisoner of all nations. Elijah 



120 T iif, Call a* To-oay. 

is in dejection because he learned the threat of Jeze- 
bel, and fast made his way to the desert, and threw 

himself under the stunted tree, and prayed for the 

relief of death. Yet Elijah is one of God's chosen 
men. He is the best representative of the true God 

in a degenerate land. J [e must not be ranked among 
the ordinary men. To read his history reveals that 
he was a conqueror. He moves among men with 
the spirit of one who fully appreciates the mean- 
ing of his name, ''Jehovah is my God." He is an 
intense soul, with high daring and courage ; he 
compels the king to listen to his burning words as 
he denounces his foul transgressions. In the time 
of famine he dares trust God for his food, and the 
ravens are commissioned as his butlers. Evening 
and morning, bread and flesh are brought to him. 
He is the greatest miracle-worker of the prophetic 
age. He bends over the dead form of the son of 
the widow, and calls him back to life. And yet 
this man, who dared taunt the prophets of Baal and 
bid the multitude decide between God and Baal, is 
himself a coward. Dean Stanley says that Elijah 
is "the grandest and most romantic character that 
Israel ever produced." But the grandest and most 
romantic characters are ofttimes weakest. Those 
who can walk in the clouds stumble in the clods. 



RS-SNUSTED Si RENGTH. I J i 

Even the loftiest spirits Been most helpless in o 
tain testings i if life. 

What is true in history we have proved true in 
our own hearts. After the most gorgeous 
cles of human triumph, we easily descend to the 
mmonplace. The moments of poetic fancy arc 
followed by the dull The brilliant suc- 

cess of the drawing-room is overbalanced by the 
reaction of the succeeding days. Even the loftiest 
spiritual delight is often followed with depression 
and despondency. 

It is a great distance from Mount Carmel to 
the wilderness, but one can soon cover it. Elijah 
was one day's journey from home. He was only 
ighty miles from Jezreel where Jezebel lived, but 
he is in the wilderness; he goes quickly from the 
royal court to the desert Xo Sowers bloom in the 
wilderness: there are no trees with grateful shade. 
The Stunted broom-trees are the junipers, tinder 
which the great and romantic Elijah waits in dejec- 
tion. I low are the mighty fallen! Hercules has 
failed in his labor-! Atlas has lost the world fr 
his shoulder ! 

How did Elijah ,^'ct to the wilderness? Did 
royal chariots convey him? Did priestly escort 
bring him to this place? Who could drive the con- 



122 Tin; Call o* To-day. 

quering prophet of yesterday into the wilderness 
of to-day? No one but Elijah himself. "But he 

himself went a day's journey into the wildernc- 

There was qo power in the royal army to bring him ; 

no necessity could compel him ; he went of his own 
accord. The wilderness suited the condition of his 
ill ; he preferred to go to the wilderness because 
his soul was in the wilderness. He was in sympathy 
with what the wilderness represented in life. He 
had lost his life's purpose; he had no consuming" 
sense of duty, and, therefore, was an outcast. On 
Mount Carmel, in the presence of royalty and the 
prophets of Baal, his thought was concerning God 
and his duty to Him. In the wilderness he thinks 
of himself and safety. The message of Jezebel 
frightened him, and he fled. "He arose and went 
for his life." The marvelous change from Carmel 
to the wilderness came with a change of purpose ; 
his mind and soul were transformed, and he fled as 
a coward, because he thought more of himself than 
of his God. The greatest difference between Car- 
mel and the wilderness was in the mental and spir- 
itual religions of Elijah. Let any one abandon 
duty, forget God, or give Him a secondary place 
in life, and he will quickly go from Carmel to the 
wilderness. 



R .11. 123 

There can be no question bul thai the prophet 

weary. The physical reaction from the great 

of the preceding day would easily bring him 

ndency. But, back of "all these elements in 

experience, was the changed relation to 

and duty; his vision of the Highest was blurred; 

the master purpose that made him heroic had fled; 

self had become the most important consideration of 

his life; he IS, therefore, like the ordinal*}' man. 

[lows a well-defined conviction of 

duty, there will be no place fur the wilderness ex- 
perience. Juniper-trees do not grow by the side 
of the path of noble purpose, but personality first, 
and despondency is sure to follow-. Think of self, 
and one is unfitted for any great duty. The sur- 
geon who has the difficult operation to perform, re- 
quiring all the nerve and steadiness he can com- 
mand for his success, must think of the patient 
rather than himself. The saving of life displaces 
the thought of his personal comfort. Let the artist 
permit necessity to drive him to painting canvas 
by the ward, and he is at once in the wilderne- 

trt Only the man who is in love with his art, 
for art'- sake, can be the true artist. Even the mas- 
ter poets who have attempted to compel their Muse 
to inspire them to some unworthy subject, have 



(24 1*M Cm. i. ok Vo-DAY. 

written only jingles which show How a lofty pur- 
pose can yield to the narrowness of seifishn- 
Selfishness is the giant who wrestles with otir best 

natures. If he can overthrow our vision of God and 
duty, we at once are like Samson bound for derision 
and the amusement of his enemies. The prophvt> 
and men of God in every age who have been suc- 
cessful have kept themselves behind their work. 
Some great guiding purpose has called them into 
service, and glorified all their work. Whenever 
they have failed to see duty, the inevitable result 
came to them. They were like Elijah in the wilder- 
ness praying for the relief of death. Xo good man 
is ever led under the juniper of discouragement, ex- 
cept through a reversal of the order that God has 
intended for him. 

But there is a second valuable lesson in this 
wilderness experience. What is God's treatment of 
a discouraged man? Like God's methods wherever 
revealed, it will fully justify our studies. When 
we see our friends in discouragement we laugh at 
them ; we try to drive them by ridicule to some 
heroic endeavor; we drag them into society, and in 
its dizzy whirl expect them to forget their disap- 
pointment and bereavement. If we fail in this, we 
poise the barbed arrow, shoot the shaft of contempt 



Ui : II. 125 

at the heart, and then wonder thai we have never 
ed how cowardly our friend was. "Man's in- 
humanity to man." We say, let the discouraged 
prophet have his prayer granted; let him die under 
that juniper-tree. One who is so despondent as 
this Elijah will never be a joy-maker for the world. 
We can not afford to waste effort upon a despond- 
ent soul. But God's quiver is full of mercy. lie 
watches the discouraged man, and grants a better 
answer to his prayer than he could think or ask. 
claims him as 11 is child, even if he is discour- 
The rough mantle that covers the saddened 
face can not hide Elijah from the eyes of God. The 
Infinite Father said, "His extremity is My oppor- 
tunity." Elijah had never seen an angel. The 
swift-winged messengers of God hastened to the re- 
lief of the discouraged man under the juniper-tree. 
Tin's dark and gloomy day is the opportunity for 
the pr<»phet to see an angel. It is the day of the 
revelation of love; from heaven the angelic hosts 

sent to relieve, refresh, and re-enlist the dis- 
heartened prophet God saw the opportunity to 
arouse Elijah from despair to heroic service, and, 

therefore, He prefers to bring him from the wil- 
derness. 'Idle prayer was denied, hut the Divine 
mere}" granted a better answer. 



126 The Call o* To-day. 

What does God do in this emergency? Tie 

first relieves us from bodily weariness; tired na- 
ture needs time to rally its strength. Even an ex- 
hausted prophet can not do much work, and God 
said: "Let him rest, sing him to sleep. Let slumber 
smooth out tlie wrinkles in his brow, the cramp of 
the limb will disappear after he is rested. He can- 
not eat now, let him slumber." 

How little this weary world of ours has thanked 
God for the blessings of sleep ! How seldom do we 
appreciate that, with each night, He gives us the 
possibility of slumber and refreshment ! O, give 
thanks to Him for the contrast between the city, 
wearied on Saturday night with the week's work, 
discouraged with life's burden, with head throbbing 
with aches from too close application to work, hands 
burning with blisters and heart despondent because 
of unrequited labor, and the vigor and freshness of 
the morning of the Lord's-day ! Somewhere be- 
tween work and worship, between earth and heaven, 
sleep put her soft arms around the tired body, and 
the head stopped aching, muscles were rested, and 
the heart grew hopeful. O, blessed rest that makes 
life tolerable! Sleep is better than death. 

" Of all the thoughts of God that are 
Borne inward uiito souls afar, 



R] cd Strength, 127 

Along the Psalmist's music- d< 
Now, tell mc if then 

ing this, 
'He His beta 

But he will awaken. What, then, shall be done 

to the discouraged man? "Refresh him." Elijah 

accustomed to the plain food that the ravens 

brought in the days of Famine; but now God will 

surprise him with a rich meal. "Behold, then an 

Angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and 

"And he did eat and drink, and laid him 

down again, and the Angel of the Lord came again 

>nd time, and touched him, and said, Arise and 

cat." It is a great change from ravens to angels as 

butlers; but it is God's way of bringing new life to 

his wearied and discouraged prophet. 

There is an old picture in one of the galleries of 
Europe called the "Monks' Kitchen." Tt repre- 
sents the monks seated at an empty table, and all 
the work is being done by angels. One stands by 

the range, raking the coals, another scrubs the 
■-. and still another is preparing food for the 
king. It is a quaint old picture, but it is in- 
tended to symbolize God's great care of His serv- 
ants. There is more truth about its suggestion than 
ars at first glan 1 is not belittled by the 

thought that II for the details ^\ life To 

some of us. God must reveal himself in the little 



i 28 Tin-; Cam. <>i ; To-day. 

things, for we never know the great ministries. We 

lose much of the help of the Divine presence when 
we limit Him to the sublimities. If God cduld stop 

and feed the lions lest they rend Daniel asunder; 
if he could open the doors of the prisons and release 
His servant; if our blessed Lord would eater to 
the hunger of a great multitude that came to hear 
him in the wilderness, — it is not irreverent for us 
to believe that the Heavenly Father is interested in 
nourishing" our bodies against the journey that is 
before us. We may with great literalness take the 
declaration of David, "Thou preparest a table be- 
fore me in the presence of mine enemies, Thou 
anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over.'* 
What a banquet God spread before Elijah that day 
in the wilderness ! 

But the refreshed prophet must be re-enlisted. 
The relations that brought Elijah to the wilderness 
must be changed. Recovered strength and spirit 
are given for new duties. Xew purposes must take 
the place of the aimlessness. Self must come after 
God, work must occupy the place of fear. To re- 
main under the juniper-tree in the wilderness, when 
one has strength for the journey, is a waste of 
power. The partial recovery from the discourage- 
ment must be completed by being set to some 
worthv task. Nothing will so rouse to noble action 



im i.i» Strengi ii. 
call to work. God means that Elijah shall 

continue in the journey, but not in the wilden 

the man who prayed that he might be permitted 
to die, that journey was too great ; he must have a 
companion for the long walk, and, therefore, God, 
whom he had neglected, promised to walk with him. 
Xo journey can he too great in such company. The 
same assurance given Moses was Elijah's, "My 

nee -hall go with thee, and I will give thee 
The journey may be long and difficult The 

battle may he sharply contested. But if God is 
with His servant, the destination will surely he 
reached. It is never an uncertain battle in which 
God is allied with one of the contestants. 

The record adds significantly, "And he went in 
the strength of that meat forty days and forty 
nights unto Iloreb, the mount of God." The 
prophet goes out of that wilderness, keeping step 

with his God He was girded anew with strength. 

The long journey was fitted to the spirit of the man 

of God. No longer do we see him with mantle- 

:ng for the release of death, lie is 

alert and swift because his life swung hack to its 

right relation to God. The new tasks summoned 

him. His mission was to he accomplished before 

his prayer to die could he answered. He must 
9 



130 Tin-; (\\i.i. o* To-DAY. 

climb mountains, and learn perfectly the great les- 
son of his life-work. He is to be the maker of 
kings; he must establish a system of instruction 
for the sons of the prophets : a nation is to be taught 
the fundamental lessons of God's kingdom before 
Elijah can place his mantle upon another. And 
when this re-enlisted servant of God ceased his 
work, death did not put chill touch upon him. The 
chariot of God carried him away from his pupil 
and his work. "Elijah went up by a whirlwind into 
heaven." Death can never harm the life that thus 
is yielded to God. Death never can break the com- 
panionship when God walks with His servant. Re- 
enlisted for a great work, he cheerily obeys God, 
and wins heaven by a chariot of fire. 

The story of Elijah is a parable of life. God 
waits to refresh, comfort, and re-enlist us in His 
service. Xone of us need remain in that wil- 
derness of despair. God bids us take up our work 
for Him. We must bravely carry the responsibility 
He places on us. He will "be with us alway, even 
unto the end." We can be assured of a successful 
work, and an abundant entrance into the kingdom 
of glory. 

u I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air: 
I only know I can not drift 
Beyond His love and care." 



VIII. 
THE COMPLETE LIFE 

"But of Him arc ye in Christ Jesus, who of Cod is 

made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and 

mctification, and redemption/' — i Cor. t, 30. 

In the Valtican gallery there is a piece of sculp- 
ture called the Torso Belvedere. It is a broken 

ment of what once represented Hercules in rc- 
Btlt now the head is gone, the arms are gone, 
and the limbs are gone. Tt does not seem at first 
to be much of a work of art. But Angelo called 
himself the pupil of that torso, lie discovered in it 
the greatest monument of art. When darkness shut 
out the light and beauty of the world from his 
blinded eyes, he used to be led to that torso, and, 

ing hi- hands over it in rapt admiration, de- 
clared that human skill had wrought no finer work. 

If a partial study of the Belvedere warranted the 
great artist in hi- high appreciation, what rapture 

WOUld have filled his SOUl had he been privi' 

udy that marble compute ! 

13* 



132 Tin". Cai.i. 0* To-day, 

We arc permitted to stand in God's great gal- 
lery and study the perfect example of life in Christ 
Jesus. In His completene shall not be able to 

apprehend Him. In all His fullness we shall know 

Him when the limitations of this life shall have 
been removed. But there are visions of Him within 
our privilege now, that will complete the best en- 
deavors of all who strive for the perfect life. 

We may study how humanity created anew in 
Christ Jesus is enabled by virtue of His incarna- 
tion to reach wisdom, not by means of human re- 
search alone, but by revelation. Man is possessed 
by righteousness ; not by works done in obedience 
to the law, but by the infusion of the spirit of right- 
eousness in Christ. Sanctification is accomplished, 
not by human merit, but by the Divine law of 
growth in the principle of holiness. The redemp- 
tion of humanity from the captivity of sin is accom- 
plished in the atonement for our sins. The great 
work of life is completed in Christ. The glory for 
it must be given the Lord, and not the unaided ef- 
forts of men. 

You remember one of the definitions of your 
earlier geometry to be, "the complement of an angle 
is the measure of the difference between it and a 
right angle." The same principle will give us the 



Tin: COMPLBI 

definite statement of this study. The measure 

difference between our utmost endeavors and 

the "Completed Life" is its complement Christ 

at once revealed as the Perfect Life and the 

complement of our best efforts. The foolish and 

vain attempts of the wise, scribes, and disputei 

ribed in the context God brought to failure 
the wisdom of men, but with supreme satisfaction 

reveals His Son to fill up the measure of life in 
its noblest search. 

It was in the time of war that a father who had 
been home on a furlough was starting back to his 

comrades on the battlefield. He bade good-bye to 
wife and child, and went out to a soldier's duty. 
The child tried to follow the father, who had gone 
t the door. But the little hand could not reach 
the latch. He Stood upon tiptoe, but failed to open 

the door. The desire was intense as the child's 

uld know. The effort was honestly made, 

but failed. The nurse put her hand upon the lock, 

which the child's arm was too short to reach, Her 
arm was the complement of hi- short arm. She 

filled up what was lacking of the child's upreach to 
open that door. Before the door, leading to divine 
privilege, humanity has stood, intent upon opening 
it, and entering the heritage of the children of 



134 '' lli: Call o* To-day. 

God Upon tiptoe, with its longest outreach, it has 
failed through the centuries to unlatch the door and 
enter. But the human race plus Christ has accom- 
plished what the race minus Christ never could have 

done. To know the power of that plus factor is the 

Study of this text. 

The Strasburg Cathedral has a clock which rep- 
resents the order of the solar system. The position 
of the planets, in relation to one another and to the 
sun, is indicated ; and the hours repeat the goings 
and register the doings of this great section of the 
heavens. But high over the clock and its solar 
arrangement appear Christ and His apostles. The 
hours show the apostles revolving around their 
Master. There is the hint that the Divine man is 
above all things, and that the order and movement 
of the physical universe have their full meaning only 
in the light of human history. They declare that 
nature is for humanity, and that humanity comes 
to its complete sense of itself only in Christianity. 
This is the symbol for to-day. It is the mood to 
which Christianity makes with new hope its ancient 
appeal. 

History has recorded four great aspirations of 
humanity, specially marked in the development of 
several of the greatest nations of the past. The 



Tin; Com im.i'.ti I . 

place in history of B race is measured by the 

• Mi ft* need, and finding satisfaction in some 
permanent quality of humanity. The larj 
tribution any nation or individual makes to highest 
life i^> in voicing the demands for these element 
noble life, and opening the spring of satisfaction for 
them. The attempts to secure the simple life by ig- 
noring the great catholic demands of the mind and 
soul have been miserable failures. Whether at the 
Brook Farm or in the wilds of the desert, men 
have tried to deny the privilege of satisfaction to 

the truest aspirations of mankind, the experiment 

has been a sad failure. 

I the charges against a Christian civiliza- 
tion has been that, instead of reducing the want- of 

men, it lias seemed to increase them. We must ac- 
cept the statement of fact. The desires of men have 

keen multiplied. Comfortable existence is not the 
end of life. Comfort may be the badge of degrada- 
tion. There IS a specie- of jellv-fi>h which never 
stirs from the rock where it is fixed. It doc- not 

go in search of food, because it feeds upon a sea- 

I which floats to it. That WOUld seem to he a 

• comfortable kind of life. But scientists in- 
ns that it is the lowest form of life. The law 
is that as life rises in the scale, the necessities are 



136 Tin-; Cam. of To-day. 

multiplied. The nobler animals require more sup- 
plies and from a wider range than the lower. It is 
possible for a human being to live and die without 
intellectual curiosity being stirred, but that would 
be existence rather than living. What sensitive 
soul would surrender the life which trembles with 
the enterprise of knowledge for that? A savage 
has but few wants. He prepares easily for a jour- 
ney and war. His kit is simple as compared with 
the trunks of supplies carried by a civilized man. 
Mr. Stanley tells of the rude life in an African 
kraal, which, compared with the complex life of our 
cities, would astound the simple natives of the Dark 
Continent. They have not realized the necessity of 
police protection, water-supply, telegraph and tele- 
phone systems, and the postal facilities. We re- 
quire them as necessities. These mark the contrast 
between civilization and barbarism. The principle 
has been demonstrated that the higher the civiliza- 
tion, the greater will be the number of its demands. 
The character and number of the necessities fix 
one's place in the scale of civilization. The same 
law prevails when we study the spiritual nature. 
The principle of ascent is the law of enlarged neces- 
sities. Christianity has as its Divine mission the 
discoverv of the catholic necessities of the human 



Tin. COMPLSTI K 137 

soul, ami the provision For their satisfaction. N< 

n can humanit] be satisfied in ignorance. It 
must possess knowledge before it will erase the 
struggle for knowledge. A remarkable illustration 
of the influence of the Christian religion in awak- 
ening die wants of men is seen in its power to 
create even a commerce anion-' tile nations that 

have been Christianized. The South Sea [slands 

Stablished commercial relations with the 

world until the missionary with his m( came 

r the natives to the larger life, whose demands 

could be supplied only by opening trade with other 

nations. 

St. Paul here teaches that Christ Testis is re- 
lated to at least four great and universal longings 
of humanit}', as both the Revealer and Satisfier. 

I. lie first mentions wisdom. lie was writing to 

mmunity that had many Greeks. The passion 

of the Greek people is to know. Doubtless the apOS- 
tle thought of them as he wrote to the Corinthian 
Church* It is surprising how little men can know. 
Some can not count ten. They have no curiosity to 

inquire whence come the rivers that fertilize their 

valleys, or whither they flow. They may reap corn, 
but the}' never BUSpect the rich deposit of minerals 
under the surface of the earth. Generation follows 



138 Tin; Cam. 0* To-day. 

generation with no new achievements, and no wif 
than the former. The mind has not been stirred 
to activity. But in Greece this curiosity bad b 
aroused. The great excitement in Greece was con- 
cerning knowledge. Each generation contributed 

new facts to the fund of information. They were 
travelers, intent on gathering- a comprehensive 
knowledge of the lands, peoples, the natural his- 
tory, and the world in which they lived. The earth 
beneath and the stars above them were carefully 
studied. The thirst for knowledge grew imperative 
with them. Men of great intellectual power arose 
in Greece, and carried the spirit of inquiry into the 
more important regions. From a world of mate- 
rials they went to study of mind, and later to the 
wise application of the facts learned to life. Thus 
knowledge ripened into wisdom. Socrates, the 
flower of the life of Greece, told his countrymen 
that the knowdedge they had of the stars was of 
far less value than the knowledge they had of their 
souls. 

Such questions as "What is man?" were dis- 
cussed in their academies. "What are the tasks of 
a short life?" "What prizes make life a success, if 
won, and, if lost, make it a failure?" "What man, 
of all men, should they strive to imitate ?" These 



Tin" COMPl r.i ; I ,] 

were questions for which they sougfal to find 

ters. The greatest of them called them- 
philosophers, lovers of truth. They never reached 
satisfactory conclusions in their discussions. It is 
the pathetic fact that even the wisest of them dis- 
claimed having found wisdom. The race of scholars 
of the ancient world asked questions which they 
could not answer. The world has followed in their 
steps. "The world by wisdom knows not 
." [f the Greeks standing upon tiptoe were un- 
able tO find truth wisely applied to life, Paul saw 
in Christ the perfect realization of what they had 
lit in vain. They had inquired what human 
life would be like at its best, and whose figure of 
manhood would be worthy of universal imitation. 
The apostle was ready to answer their question by 
holding before their attention the image of his Mas- 
ter. Jesus of Nazareth is the Man of the world. 
lie is the answer to Pilate's question, "What is 
truth?" The knowledge of the world has been mul- 
tiplied many-fold through the triumphs of those 
who have been searchers after knowledge. The 
volume of information is nearly unmanageable. 
Perhaps we need to return to the advice of Socrates, 
and inquire more about the truth affecting our own 

SOU] than the knowledge of the world. Much 



140 Tin; Call of To-day. 

knowledge is not necessarily much wisdom. To 
apply information rightly is the part of wisdom. To 
make what we know minister to what we are, is 
wisdom. To know the best, that manhood may be- 
come the best, is the highest wisdom. Is there bet- 
ter answer given the questions of men than this? 
Christ Jesus is the complement of what men ought 
to know and be. When human life has vainly en- 
deavored to open the door to wisdom, it has been 
compelled to wait until He added His strength to 
its endeavors. In Him "are hid all the treasures 
of wisdom and knowledge. " 

II. He is the complement of righteousness. The 
conquering power of Rome had gone everywhere. 
The Roman eagle controlled the great provinces of 
the world. Roman soldiers were found everywhere. 
The relations of conqueror and conquered were 
thrust upon the world's thought. This period of 
Roman history was devoted to the establishment of 
law and order in all the provinces. The genius of 
Roman life was justice. They had conquered the 
world. Originally they were but a small tribe on 
the banks of the Tiber, but gradually they spread 
their conquests north, south, east, and west. Bound- 
ary-lines were obliterated because they reduced all 
nations to Roman provinces, but the new force that 



Tin; Complete ijn.. 141 

te introduced into the world was law. Tri- 
bunals of justice followed the pathways of the le- 

- of war. Many of their statutes remain as 
the foundations of the modern codes of jurispru- 
dence. The genius of the Roman life was, \ ] 
fore, concerning the solution of the problem arising 

from tlie relation of man to man, and nation to na- 
il. That was their mission in the world. 
But they can not be said to have successfully ac- 
complished their mission. Justice is essentially 
sided. It is concerned, on one hand, in inquir- 
*I low much owest thou me?" and, on the other, 
ready to acknowledge its indebtedness to you. 
It is easy to exact the first demand of justice and 
forget the second. That is not justice, but the as- 
sertion of the power-making right. Force is not 
righteousness. Justice which is one-sided is un- 
thy of the name. Roman justice was of this 
kind. It had legions of mighty warriors to exact 
iance to Rome, but gave little heed to Rome's 
debt to the world. It developed selfishness. The 
hearts of its people were hard as flint No ambition 
worth}- of a Roman citizen until it reached 

his triumph, as he ascended the steps n\ the Capitol 

with captive kings following in his train. In the 
Cruelty this spirit developed, it became necessary to 



142 Tin: Cam, o* To-DAY. 

butcher a hundred captives to afford a holiday 
amusement He delighted in the slaughter of men 

and women in the arena. And when his cruelty 
ripened, the public circus was his free entertain- 
ment. Rome readied after justice, but failed to 
possess it. Righteousness was a closed door be- 
fore the Roman civilization. 

But St. Paul discovered what they failed to find. 
I [e saw what Rome needed to complete her prin- 
ciple of justice. What was lacking in their notion 
of right? It was the element of love. That had 
never entered their conception of justice. The 
apostle discovered that Jesus Christ is the embodi- 
ment of Eternal Love for the world, and is there- 
fore the best expression of righteousness. 

Is not this the demand of the age in which we 
live? Do you not discover that the Roman ques- 
tion is at the heart of the supreme problem of this 
age? It is the relation of man to man, of em- 
ployer to the employed, of the rich to the poor, of 
the government of the nation to the individual, that 
presses upon our attention in these days. We shall 
never find answers to our problems by taking men 
by the throat and demanding that they pay us what 
they owe, while we forget to pay wdiat we owe them. 
The law of fair dealing must prevail. Sympathy 



Tim. Complete I ,i i 13 

and helpfulness are as valuable as wage and 
ductiveness. We h; -1 upon tiptoe, and or- 

capital and organized labor have vainly 
striven to open the door t-» the lai 
The Carpenter <>f Nazareth stands close at hand 
to unlatch the door that we may go into right 

ther law than I lis Golden Rule will ex- 
3 the eternal answers to the questions of right- 
eousness. "For Christ is the end of the law for 

hteousneSS to every one that believeth." The 

right ;s of faith is the ultimate righteousness 

of the world. It is buried in the heart, hnt it speaks 
through the lips and works through the hands. 
III. Christ is the complement of a third great 
fing of humanity. That is the desire to know 
God and he holy. Everywhere St. Paul went he 
found the Jews, men of his own nation. They were 
at the centers of trade. The Gospel was first of- 
I them wherever St. Paul went. They were the 
religious race of the world. The genius of the He- 
brew is for holiness. The Jewish people occupied a 
unique place among the n; ndencies 

and sue> were marked in religious develop- 

ment. When the apostle recalled what a mighty 
>r this longing ictifieation had been in 

r\-, he (bought of his own nation, whose won- 



144 Tut Cam, <>i-* To-day. 

derflll influence was associated with this demand. 
The Jew had no valuable art, no philosophy, until 
lie borrowed it from his neighbors. He was not 
possessed of the conquering instinct. The few 
wars of conquest of his history were only enough 
to possess tlie land promised in the covenant of God 
with His people. Though he often dreamed of con- 
quest and of a world-power he was too timid to un- 
dertake the campaign. He was too much attached to 
the narrow^ strip of the land of his birth to realize 
his dreams. But his genius took a loftier flight. 
The mission of his race was nobler than war, sub- 
limer than art or poetry. In him the desire to real- 
ize God asserted itself with all force. The poet- 
king sang the longings of his race : "As the hart 
panteth after the water-brook, so panteth my soul 
after Thee, O God." "O God, Thou art my God, 
early will I seek Thee ! My soul thirsteth after 
Thee. My soul longeth for Thee in a thirsty land." 
These are some of the utterances of the singers of 
Israel. They are the voice of the entire nation. 
The highest aspiration of the Jew was to walk with 
God, and his greatest blessedness was to be called 
a saint. 

Another side of this same disposition may be 
seen in the personal sense of distance from God, 



Tin- Com im.! i i. i .; 

He felt in his inmost soul that he was unwortfa 
Mich companionship. Because he inner he 

could nol have fellowship with God. While the in- 
ctual life was developed in the Greek nation, 
conscience unfolded its majestic authority in the 
Jewish nation. Conscience was the scourge of ter- 
ror for every sinful soul. The question which was 

carried in his heart was, "How can I escape my 
sin?" "How can 1 he j list with God?" "How may 
I walk with Him?" But, like the Roman and the 
Greek, he never claimed to have found satisfaction, 
lie never reached the purity of life toward which he 
Struggled. He tried the punctilious observance of 
many rules of conduct, but his ideal always mocked 

effort The rites of sacrifice and the rivers of 
blood shed for the temple offerings failed to wash 
away his sin. 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ came as a satisfying 

answer to that long and passionate cry for heart- 
purity. It said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which 
taketh away the sin of the world!" St Paul had 
sounded the depths of the Jewish heart; he under- 

i the mission of his race to be the voice crying 
for moral purity in the wilderness of the world. As 
a Jew lie cried out, "( ), wretched man that I am, 
who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" 

10 



146 Tin: Gall 0* To-day, 

He likewise knew of a satisfaction when God re- 
vealed the remedy for his ailment of sin, and he 

shouted, "Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ!" He took as his message to the world that 
"He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no 
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God 

in 1 Iim." 

This need is realized in every human heart. This 
is the soul's deepest and most sacred need. It de- 
mands satisfaction. The highest life calls for a 
satisfying knowledge of sins forgiven. Where shall 
this great religious longing find its reply except in 
Jesus Christ? 

u I could not do without Thee; 

No other friend can read 
The spirit's strange, deep longings, 

Interpreting its need ; 
No human heart could enter 

Each dim recess of mine, 
And soothe and hush and calm it, 

O blessed Lord, like Thine/' 

The way of holiness is the way of Christ's cross. 
The friendship of Jesus is the guarantee of sanc- 
tity. He opened the gates of holiness to human life. 
He is made our sanctification. "There is none 
other name given among men whereby we must be 
saved." "There is one God and one mediator be- 



Tn i. ( M I'm: n. 1 ,ii i . 147 

tween God and man, the man Chrisl Jesus; who 
1 [imself a ransom for all." 

IV. The last great cry of the human heart, b 
mentioned, is redemption. These deep desires of 
human nature are found everywhere. And this 

ing For a full redemption is worthy of a place 

with the others. The Sweep <»f this longing reaches 
an assurance Of immortality. The perfect redemp- 
tion here presented is the loosing of the soul from 
every bond that holds it enslaved. Life and im- 
mortality are brought to light in the Gospel. This 
cry of the soul found no precious assurance with- 
out Christ and His work. The instinct of immor- 
tality is native to the human race. The date of the 
:on of this craving can not he clearly 
set. The necessity of some great national emphasis, 
a- in the other desires does not appear. Men in all 
have realized the passion for immortal life, 
e historians trace it through two countries ly- 
on the border-land of civilization. 
But having asserted itself, the longing has died 

OUt of the -onl. Now and then, men may talk of 

returning to life simple as that of a dog, hut such 

is impossible. E U advocated a return to the 

state of nature, in which there would he no more 
curiosity to know or passion fur wisdom than that 



i\S Tm; Cau (, i To-day. 

of the savage; but the suggestion brings its answer 
of impossibility of such return to the simplicity of 

want. Desire for wisdom and justice may die out 

of our hearts, but the passion for immortality will 

never cease. Special experiences will demonstrate 

the imperative demand of this assurance. The dis- 
covery of the inequalities of human life presses the 
philosophic demand for some more perfect world, 
where the redress for wrongs and the rewards of 
virtue may be had. Slaves, wdiose miseries find no 
release, needed a message of redemption. Some of 
the princely souls of history have suffered in bond- 
age of body. What a message from heaven to all 
who suffered the wrongs of slavery ! The modern 
spectacle of the great prosperity of the wicked and 
the limitations of the righteous, is the same ques- 
tion that vexed the spirit of the psalmist as he 
climbed toward Zion. The answer to it is the one 
he discovered when he said, "It was too painful for 
me, until I went into the sanctuary of God ; then 
understood I their end." "Wrong may be forever 
on the throne and right on the scaffold," but the 
very injustice of their places makes a philosophic 
necessity of some future life. To another this pas- 
sion for the immortal and redeemed life asserts 
itself through intense love. It may be the love of 



Tin. )U ri.i.i i. 1 .11 i'.. i ; | 

wisdom. It may be the appreciation of cour 
It may declare itself in devotion to some moral qual- 
ity, ( )r, in the attachment of one heart for another, 
the soul may be stirred to desire this larger life of 
immortality. The thought that death can inter- 
between the soul and its ideals is intolerable. 
u for a redemption from the bondage 

of death. 

IS for him who never sees 
The Stars shine through his cypress ttf 
Who, hopeless, lavs his dead away, 
Nor looks to see the breaking day 

Across the mournful marbles play; 
Who hath not learned, in hours of faith, 

The truth to flesh and sense unknown, 
That Life is ever lord of Death, 

And Love can never lose its own !" 

Perhaps from the consciousness we have that the 
spirit of man must not die, we have one of the most 
Convincing intimations of the immortal life. There 
is the universal conviction that after death there is 
a punishment which follows the commission of 
crime, and that at the time of death it gathers 
around the soul, looking hack Upon a career of sin 
unpardoned. In that dread hour men know that 
they have not done with their sins, but have to face 
them beyond the veil of time. Immortality is 
before us, not only as a great hope, but as a great 



150 Tin-; Call or To-day. 

terror. Wc passionately long for it, and then recoil 
from it with guilty fear. Who can reconcile this 
contradiction? Who shall enable us confidently to 
expect that the eternity we have desired shall not 

bring the terror of condemnation for our wrong- 
doing? St. Paul gives the answer when lie 
clares that "Christ is made unto us redemption." 
He has released us from the terror of death. In 
Him life and immortality have been brought to light. 
In Him fear is changed to joy. There is a better 
word in the Gospel than immortality : it is the word 
of Jesus answering this great hope, "eternal life." 
That implies more than duration of time, but qual- 
ity. It is the life which blends the present and the 
future in one. It sets before us the state into which 
we are called to enter now, and in which we shall be 
when we find ourselves in the Father's house. Mere 
continued existence has no precious promise for us. 
Immortality plus eternal life is the joyful assurance 
of the Gospel. Life and immortality are great les- 
sons of Christ Jesus. 

This glorious message of joy meets us in every 
strait of life. It has comfort, light, assurance, and 
help for all who will trust themselves to its power. 
It is the Gospel suited to the best and truest of such 
lives. It is not fitted to the shallow moods of the 
soul, when it is blinded by the glare and satisfied 



Tin: Com ru.i i . i . i i 

with the glitter of vulgar prizes. Bui when W( 
our i 1 tivine n for 

:>. 
Those noble souls who have "followed 
:i," au«l found a bright path to the perfect life, 
be all praise of their redemption to Christ Jesus 
their Lord. It is said that Apelles once visited his 
former pupil, Protogenes of Rhodes. He found his 
friend absent Looking about the studio, Apelles 

>vered a partly finished canvas on an i 
Seating himself before it, he completed the work. 

Covering it with care, he withdrew to the draperies 
to wait the return of his former pupil. Protogenes 
returned, and began his work on the half-completed 
picture. Lifting the covering, and discovering 
what had been done, he exclaimed, "Apelles has 
been here; no one else could paint like that." It 
is the touch of the great artist whose infinite skill 
and love complete life's fairest picture. "Ye are 
complete in Him." Imperfect men and women 
hem lifted to such beauty and power in Him 
that we may exclaim, "Christ Jesus has been here, 
ne but the Divine Savior could accomplish 

that triumphant W( >rk !" 

9 lift- our code, hi OX erred, 

nts, our highest aims 

. 1 their fulfillment, Lord, in Thee. 



152 Tin; Cam. of To-day. 

Dear Son of God! Thy blessed will 

Our hearts would own, with saints above; 
All Life is larger fur Thy law, 

All service sweeter for Thy love. 

Thy life our code! in letters clear 
We read our duty day by day, 

Thy footsteps tracing eagerly, 

Who art the truth, the life, the way. 

Thy cross our creed! Thy boundless love 
A ransomed world at last shall laud, 

And crown Thee their Eternal King, 
O Lord of Glory ! Lamb of God!" 



OCT 190*5 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Dnve 
Cranberry Township. PA 15066 
(724)779-2111 



■ 
■ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



mm 






■ ■ 
Wtm 

1 



hi 






9 










■ 



WMzm 

:'•'- "V, ;•■■•'•:'' / / ®$ 




■H lili 



017 658 543 2 






